By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Minutes after the state legislature passed their education budget bill in a giant step towards completing the 2010 budget, Gov. David Paterson vetoed an additional $419 in education spending.
“I will veto any additional spending,” Paterson said in televised remarks before signing the veto. “You can’t spend money you don’t have.”
The bill, devised over the weekend by Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, gave legislators an alternative to Paterson's promised doomsday extender bill, which would have forced them to accept his proposed 2010 budget or allow the government to shut down.
"I gave them a drop-dead date of June 28th, yesterday," Paterson explained in a radio interview Tuesday morning. "If they didn't pass [a] budget, I was going to use an emergency extender…and put all the other budget items in the budget."
Though the Sampson/Silver bill passed (narrowly in the Senate and by a wider margin in the Assembly), Paterson was determined to exert his influence, nixing the $419 in additional education spending, which he said was unfunded.
"I'm vetoing the spending in the budget because they just don't pay for it," the governor explained.
Sampson defended the bill in a Statement Monday.
“We balanced the budget in line with our values, making tough cuts and smart restorations to protect our investment in education and health care," the senator said. "That means stronger schools, healthier communities and a brighter future for all New Yorkers.”
Despite Paterson's promise to veto any additional spending, the embattled governor criticized the bill for failing to provide property tax relief to suburban and rural homeowners, the New York Times said.
“They sent a message to property tax payers and that message was that property tax relief will have to give way to election year budgets and I don’t accept that,” Paterson said.
The governor also took issue with the legislators' decision not to include a provision that would have generated revenue by allowing SUNY and CUNY's to control their own tuition rates.
Paterson did, however, note the inclusion of two money-making schemes in his Tuesday radio appearence — a tax on clothing and an additional tax on cigarettes, which are expected to yield abouf $500 million, combined, according to the governor.
Under state law, Paterson may submit amendments to whatever budget bill is passed within 30 days of submission, Sampson and Silver said in a statement.
The legislators are expected to attempt an override vote on Paterson's education spending veto, perhaps as early as Tuesday.
