Paterson To Veto State Budget Add Ons

With the state budget nearly three months late, Governor David Paterson says he will veto all 6,900 amendments included in the budget passed Monday by state lawmakers.
During a rare evening news conference last night, Paterson began the process by vetoing $419 million in education funding.
He also took the stamp to labor and family assistance bills.
The governor calls the changes irresponsible and unbalanced and says the lawmakers' plan does not prepare for the possible loss of up to a billion dollars in federal Medicaid funding or allow SUNY and CUNY campuses the ability to raise their own tuitions.
"Now I am disappointed, stunned, and frankly chagrinned with a legislature that is unable or unwilling to address the problems that the people of the State of New York has," said the governor. "Everybody in the country -- now half of the states that counted the Medicaid money have now stared to address these problems -- and the other states will as well. But New York, again wants to blissfully move forward, fantasizing that the Medicaid money is coming."
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says a contingency plan for the federal Medicaid money is not necessary.
"If we would show the federal government that we don’t need the money, that we can deal with it, we can kiss that money goodbye," Silver said.
Earlier in the day, members of the State Assembly and Senate rejected Paterson's latest emergency spending plan and instead passed much of their own budget, while still avoiding a government shutdown.
Despite the governor's threat of more line-item vetoes, an Assembly spokesman tells NY1 lawmakers plan to vote on the remaining amended budget bills this week.