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April 13, 2006 VETOES, LOTS OF VETOES: Yesterday, as had been widely predicted, Governor Pataki finished issuing vetoes on several areas of the budget agreement passed by the Assembly and Senate, which included between $2 and $5 billion more than the Governor had provided for in his budget proposal. Following is a list of the Governor’s vetoes that effect the mental health community:
The Governor used two separate justifications in issuing the vetoes listed above. The first is the justification he has used in previous years, in which he claims such appropriations will “adversely impact the State’s capacity to maintain a properly balanced budget, provide for adequate fiscal reserves and ensure manageable out-year budget gaps.” The second justification the Governor articulates for vetoing portions of the budget is based on a State Court of Appeals decision a few years ago which found that the Legislature has only limited authority to alter the Governor’s appropriation bills, leaving them with the authority to alter the language that stipulates how such appropriations are to be spent (Article VII bills). Therefore, other vetoes are accompanied by a justification that states that some items, “represent an unconstitutional alteration of an appropriation contained in the Executive Budget submission and is therefore disapproved.” In these cases, the Governor claims that his vetoes issued on a basis of unconstitutionality are not subject to a veto override by the Legislature. The veto of funding for the $3.335 million in Local Assistance restorations and other mental health initiatives, were vetoed for the first reason mentioned above. If these vetoes were to be overridden by the Legislature, these funding restorations would take effect immediately. However, for the programs and initiatives related to Medicaid and Family Health Plus, including the vetoes of the Medicaid wrap around and the Preferred Drug Program changes, were vetoed for the unconstitutional reason. While we expect that the Legislature will attempt overrides of the funding vetoed not for unconstitutional reasons, it remains very unclear what, if anything, will happen with regard to the vetoes issued based on the unconstitutional reasoning. Perhaps we may see the Legislature attempt to override the Governor on these issues vetoes as well, which would likely drag this budget battle into court for many years. Presently, Silver v. Pataki is winding its way through the court system, which challenges the Governor’s ability to include implementation language in appropriation bills (thus making it untouchable by the Legislature). If the outcome of this case favors the Legislature, the vetoes that the Governor issues on grounds of unconstitutionality would then be constitutional. In summary, most of the vetoes related to mental health (e.g. $3.335 million in Local Assistance restorations) can be overridden by a 2/3rds vote of both the Assembly and Senate. Other vetoes in the health arena including the ‘physician prevails’ language in the PDP and the Medicaid wrap around for dual eligibles enrolled in Medicare Part D will likely be challenged in court if overridden by the Legislature. Essentially, while not due to the delinquency of the budget, NYS’s budget is once again in uncharted waters. What is unfortunate is that the budget process will likely occupy the attention of the Legislature, preventing them from focusing on other matters, such as Timothy’s Law. Stay tuned as we will likely work to ramp up grassroots support next week to urge the Legislature to override the Governor’s vetoes when they return to Albany on April 24th after the Passover/Easter break. IN THE NEWS: Governor
Vetoes Albany Spending and Tax Breaks. By Danny Hakim ALBANY, April 12 — Gov. George E. Pataki has vetoed nearly $3 billion worth of tax cuts and spending initiatives from the Legislature's budget, saying on Wednesday that they would lead to irresponsible future deficits. In the current fiscal year, his vetoes of tax cuts worth more than $1 billion struck down rebate checks for property owners, a new child tax credit and the elimination of a tax provision felt by married couples. His spending cuts included $650 million from Medicaid alone and $500 million from the State University of New York. Mr. Pataki's 202 separate vetoes were a striking exercise of power by a lame-duck Republican governor considering a future in national politics, and they suggested that he was trying to establish an image of fiscal conservatism in his final year in office. [News analysis, Page B7.] Yet his wholesale rejection of the Legislature's tax cuts has enraged fellow Republicans in the Senate. "I cannot believe he's vetoed something like $4 billion in tax cuts," said Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, referring to the value of the Legislature's tax cut packages over two years. "I can't for the life of me understand what he's doing." Mr. Pataki issued the vetoes after lawmakers rejected his more limited tax cut plan, and he was emboldened by a recent court ruling establishing the administration's vast powers over the state budget, which is now at $112.8 billion. In fact, Mr. Pataki's actions set the stage for a potentially bruising legal fight with the Legislature that could leave the final shape of the budget in doubt for months. The governor maintains that courts have established that the Legislature does not have the power to override most of his vetoes. Legislative leaders sharply disagree, and a prominent health workers' union and a hospital association have threatened to sue over the Medicaid cuts. Mr. Pataki did not rule out negotiating further with the Legislature and possibly amending the budget in the coming months, though communications between the sides are increasingly fractious. Lawmakers will certainly try to override many of the vetoes, although the administration appears poised to battle some overrides in court. The governor appeared ready for any outcome. "I've been sued so many times," he said at a news conference on Wednesday when asked about the possibility. "I expect that there will be more." "These are vetoes that I would have preferred not to have to make," he said, adding that the Legislature's budget created "fiscal difficulties, very real ones for this state." Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Mr. Pataki's chief Democratic antagonist in the Legislature, said he did not concede the governor's contention that lawmakers could not override him. He has repeatedly referred to Mr. Pataki as "the governor of technicalities" for finding legal problems with the Legislature's budget as justification for his vetoes. Under the recent court ruling, the Legislature cannot alter the language of the governor's budget proposals, only specific appropriations. As a result, lawmakers are limited in making substantive changes to the governor's budget. Mr. Silver appeared to come out better than Mr. Bruno in the budget battle. The governor did not veto the $11.2 billion bonding plan to finance construction of New York City schools, which has been the top priority of Mr. Silver, who represents Lower Manhattan. Senate Republicans, on the other hand, saw the governor veto their main priority, the property tax rebate checks that would have been mailed shortly before the November election. Those rebates were considered a way to please the Senate Republicans' upstate base and hold on to their majority. Mr. Pataki's vetoes began shortly before midnight Monday and continued into Wednesday afternoon. In reinstating $650 million in cuts to Medicaid that were in his original executive budget, he eliminated the practice by which married couples who normally would not qualify for Medicaid can qualify for benefits for the ailing spouse by transferring their assets to the healthy spouse. He also made it harder for Medicaid recipients to receive prescriptions that are not on the state's preferred drug list. His cuts to Medicaid would be in effect for a year, through next April. He cut nearly $120 million to tuition assistance programs, halting financial aid payments to college students who default on loans or do not meet more stringent course credit requirements. His $500 million aid cut to SUNY was mostly designated for building improvements. More than $2 million was cut from Legal Aid programs around the state, as was $19 million earmarked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Mr. Pataki also vetoed an often-maligned $200 million fund that he and the Legislature have traditionally used for secretive "pork barrel" spending, but he did not veto a similar appropriation used for capital projects. There were many cuts to such diverse projects as the Staten Island Ferry, a PBS documentary on the Erie Canal and a rabies research center at Cornell University. Mr. Pataki also blocked a legislative attempt to grab control of more than $150 million collected by utilities each year and used to support energy conservation and clean energy programs in the state. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority currently selects the projects to be financed by the program, and environmentalists supported keeping the money in the authority's hands and out of the budget process. It was the governor's veto of the broad package of tax cuts that struck at the heart of the Legislature's budget proposal. Mr. Pataki did not object to all the tax cuts but said he was required to veto the entire package if he wanted to strike any one item. "The governor's playing political hardball," said Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "This is major league hardball, it's not Triple A, and he has apparently chosen to make this the year he's going to dig in." The vetoes capped a period of worsening relations between the governor and leaders of the Legislature. On Wednesday, Mr. Pataki swung back at comments Mr. Silver made Tuesday suggesting the governor would deliberately reveal his vetoes after the beginning of Passover, Wednesday evening. That would have meant that Mr. Silver, an Orthodox Jew, could not respond. "To me that's extremely disappointing, because I think it's just wrong to challenge somebody doing their job when it's an incredibly difficult job and making some sort of a religious allegation that this is somehow anti-Semitic," Mr. Pataki said. "It is wrong and it is beneath the speaker. He knows that I have gone out of my way to be cognizant of his observation, as I am of all religious peoples' observations." As it happened, the governor announced his vetoes early in the afternoon Wednesday. Mr. Silver said he never called the governor anti-Semitic. "That's typical of what this governor is doing," he said. "He doesn't want to talk about substance, he doesn't want to talk about dropping people from health care, he'd rather talk about technicalities and his interpretation of things that were said." For his part, Mr. Bruno offered a blunt assessment of the state of affairs in an interview on WROW, an Albany radio station. "The governor is well intentioned, the Assembly is well intentioned, we're well intentioned," he said. "And the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Anthony DePalma contributed reporting for this article. |
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