Legislative Scrooge: Hochul doles out final vetoes, approvals for 2024 bills

Humbug!New York Gov.Kathy Hochul is under fire for making scores of eyebrow-raising vetoes as 2024 ends – including giving a thumbs down to legislation that would ensure greater transparency to emergency government contracts.Good government groups, some homeless shelter advocates and trial lawyers are amongst those hoping the Governor gets a fat lump of coal this year after she killed some of their bills in the waning weeks of 2024.“Governor Hochul has vetoed legislation that brings greater transparency to contracts that spend your taxpayer dollars.

Instead of fixing Albany’s broken system, she is protecting it.There is no reason to oppose transparency unless the Governor has something to hide and a broken system to protect,” Rep.

Ritchie Torres (D-NY), posted to X following the veto.The governor killed legislation that would require public posting of information about contracts the state enters during states of emergency.The bill, written partially in response to dubious state contracts handed out during the COVID-19 emergency response, has only gained more relevance as Hochul’s administration comes under increased scrutiny for bypassing oversight measures to ram through lavish contracts.The proposal, which is backed by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, was watered down from previous years.“The Governor’s claim that the bill would result in the disclosure of ‘trade secrets’ is absurd,” the good government group Reinvent Albany wrote in a statement.“The bill requires agencies to write a brief description of an emergency contract including the name of the vendor and what is being provided by the contract.”The Governor’s critics were quick to point out her hypocrisy after she declared in a video address on her first day as governor that transparency would be “one of my hallmarks of my administration.”The bill was passed unanimously in both houses of the legislature, though legislative leaders have shown little interest in standing up to ...