ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo gave his veto pen a workout this week, nixing more than 70 bills that had been passed by state lawmakers earlier this year.
Cuomo’s vetoes, which were made public Tuesday morning, included measures granting tax breaks to the music and video game industries, allowing charities to sell raffle tickets online and providing job guarantees to city school bus drivers.
“This bill raises legal and fiscal concerns,” Cuomo wrote in the veto of the bus drivers’ bill.
The measure, sponsored by Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell (D-Manhattan) and Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) would have required the city to safeguard the wages and benefits of school bus drivers regardless of whether their company maintained its contract to transport students.
Under the legislation, drivers let go because their company lost its contract would have received first crack at jobs with the new company. The measure would have effectively reinstated protections that were eliminated under former Mayor Bloomberg and had been blamed for ballooning transportation costs.
Golden said he would try again next year to pass the measure.
Cuomo also cited fiscal reasons for his veto of the music and video gaming tax credits, arguing lawmakers failed to show how the they would be covered in the state budget.
“These are two job creators that we ought to try to help,” said Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn), who sponsored the bill and said he was “dismayed” that the governor vetoed it.
In another veto, Cuomo said a measure that would have allowed charities to sell raffle tickets online violated the state’s constitutional prohibitions against gambling. He also vetoed a separate measure that would have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to assist in the operation of charity bingo games, saying he did not want to expand the involvement of minors in gambling operations.
All told, Cuomo signed or vetoed 133 bills late Monday night. Lawmakers had sent the bills en masse to Cuomo’s desk at the onset of the Thanksgiving holiday in a protest over the governor’s maneuvering to block a pay raise for legislators.
Among the measures approved by Cuomo was a bill pushed by Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD that cracks down on overly tinted car windows. The measure requires inspectors to check whether the tint is too dark during annual safety inspections.
