Gov. David Paterson might be nursing a severe writer’s cramp this weekend.
Spokesman Morgan Hook said this afternoon that Paterson is done signing more than 6,900 vetoes.
Paterson began a marathon session on Thursday to complete the process of striking hundreds of millions of dollars from the $135.7 billion budget approved by the Legislature earlier this week. While Paterson made a big show of signing many of the statements—his office invited reporters to watch and then set up a live video feed on the Internet—Paterson most likely used an “autopen” for many of the signing statements.
The governor made good on the veto threat earlier this week when he struck $419 million in education aid from the budget at a news conference on Monday night. Also vetoed this week was about $193 million in legislative earmarks that had been approved in prior budget years, but was due to be re-appropriated.
Hook said the vetoes will be delivered to the Senate and Assembly so that they can formally take effect. A full tally of what was vetoed from the budget will be available then, he said.
The governor issued the vetoes after lawmakers approved a series of spending bills this week in an attempt to complete the budget, but failed to put together a contingency plan in case the state loses up to $1 billion in Medicaid funding from the federal government.
