Politics on the Hudson

   Since June, Gov. David Paterson has vetoed 171 bills this year that were passed by the Legislature. He just announced this in a statement, adding that by saying no to the legislation, he has saved taxpayers $531.7 million over the next two years.

“These tough fiscal times call for tough decisions,” he said. “While I have signed hundreds of bills into law that will help improve the lives of our citizens in the areas of education, health care and public safety, I felt it was absolutely critical to vteo bills that increased taxpayer costs beyond what we can afford in these challenging times.”

The poor economy and state’s fiscal crisis prompted the vetoes, the governor said. Many of the bills were “worthy projects with laudable goals.”

Among the vetoes: $11 million a year in payments in lieu of taxes to the City of Albany;

$3 million for not awarding medals for all armed-forces members who served in the Cold War era; $2 million by not exempting TV converter boxes from sales taxes; and $11 million for not converting the job of court officers into police officers.