ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul decided the fate of scores of bills in the final weeks of the year, including her third consecutive veto of a proposed state law championed by a Buffalo attorney representing victims of the May 14, 2022, Tops Markets massacre on Jefferson Avenue.
The Buffalo-born governor vetoed six bills sponsored by Western New York legislators that would have spearheaded a study of cancer clusters in communities such as Buffalo and Amherst; increased the availability of fresh food in underserved communities; aided residential property owners; and exempted ErieNet, the county-sponsored high-speed broadband network, from paying property taxes. The governor signed six other locally sponsored bills that are designed to benefit litigants, crime victims, small businesses, expectant mothers, retired teachers and pollution-plagued residents living near a Tonawanda crematory.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul recently vetoed six bills sponsored by Western New York legislators, questioning their language, cost or scope.
Generally, bills that have passed the Assembly and Senate become law if a governor does not act on them before the end of the year. Vetoed bills require the governor to explain the reason why it was rejected. If a bill is delivered to a governor in the last 10 days of the year, however, their inaction on it over the next 30 days could subject it to a “pocket veto” that requires no explanation of why the bill was rejected.
On Dec. 21, Hochul detailed her third consecutive veto of the Grieving Families Act. Buffalo attorney John Elmore, who represents some of the victims of the Tops shooting, had implored the governor to sign the proposed change to a wrongful death statute dating to 1847.
Instead, New York and Alabama remain only states that do not allow family members of the deceased to legally seek damages for their emotional loss. Hochul said the bill, while well intentioned, would likely result in higher insurance premiums for consumers and jeopardize the financial well-being of hospitals.
“Every human life is valuable and should be recognized as such in the eyes of the law,” Hochul’s veto said. “I remain open to working collaboratively to find solutions that support impacted families while avoiding unintended consequences. At this time, I believe further deliberations are needed.”
Elmore said he was “extremely disappointed” in Hochul’s veto – and accused the governor of siding with the interests of large corporations, insurance companies and the health care industry over taxpayers who elected her. The attorney is suing social media companies, among others, for their roles in the radicalization of white supremacist gunman Payton Gendron, 21, who is serving life in prison without parole for murder and attempted murder and faces a possible federal death sentence.
Gendron, who drove to Buffalo from Broome County, murdered 10 people, all Black, and wounded three others in a mass shooting he livestreamed on a Saturday afternoon.
“The people in the community that I live in and serve will not be fooled by the governor’s statement that the veto of this legislation was in their best interest,” Elmore said. “Clearly the veto is in the best interest of big corporations and the insurance industry.”
The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Helene Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, and Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, D-Manhattan, dates to 1994.
On Dec. 21, Hochul also vetoed a bill intended to provide ErieNet, a not-for-profit local development corporation, the kind of property tax exemptions provided for utilities and broadcasting. The governor cited “technical issues with the language” of the legislation that had been sponsored by Sen. Sean Ryan and Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera, both Buffalo Democrats.
The same day, Hochul vetoed legislation sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, and Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, to allow municipalities to hire bidders on food-purchasing contracts that are no more than 10% more expensive than the lowest bidder — if the bidder could satisfy criteria showing their value. Right now, municipalities are required to hire the lowest responsible bidder.
Hochul said the bill could lead to different standards being applied in different localities.
On Dec. 13, Hochul vetoed a bill sponsored by now-Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, and Assembly Member Al Stirpe, D-North Syracuse, to subsidize supermarkets in underserved communities to allow for more fresh food choices. The governor said the bill would “come at a substantial cost that is not accounted for in the state’s financial plan.”
Hochul vetoed a Ryan-sponsored bill on Dec. 13 intended to help owners of residential properties who have fallen behind on their taxes. The bill, co-sponsored by Long Island-based Assembly Member Fred Thiele, D-Sag Harbor, would have lowered the delinquent tax interest rate floor of 12% to 2%, and would have capped the rate at 16%.
Hochul said it posed a risk to the financial stability of local governments.
“From lowering interest rates to help families stay in their homes to protecting the health of Tonawanda residents, I worked hard to pass many of my priorities this year,” Ryan, who is running for mayor of Buffalo, said in a statement. “I will continue working to get more of my priorities over the finish line in the upcoming legislative session.”
Hochul vetoed legislation sponsored by outgoing Assembly Member Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster and Sen. James Sanders, D-Queens, to eliminate the state’s longstanding “moiety rule” that unconditionally gifts each holder of a joint bank account 50% ownership of any money deposited into their account. Wallace and Sanders said the rule was antiquated and left senior citizens and the developmentally disabled at risk of losing their money because they often use agents to make bank transactions.
The governor’s veto on Dec. 13 said the measure was “overly broad and would generate operational challenges for consumers.”
Wallace said she was aware of the governor’s concerns and had planned to reintroduce the bill had she been re-elected last month.
State Board of Elections filings showed that while the region’s 19 state legislators spent campaign money on expected costs such as mailings, advertisements, printing costs, office rent and fundraising activities, they also spent donor’s money on expenses most New Yorkers pay from their own pockets: gas, cellphone bills, dry cleaners, Thruway tolls and scores of meals.
“I’m hopeful that somebody else will pick up where I left off and get it done,” she said.
On Nov. 22, Hochul vetoed a Rivera-Sanders bill that would have required the State Department of Health to prepare a study of cancer clusters in cities and towns that hold more than 90,000 people, which would include Buffalo and the town of Amherst. The study would have required a map of each city showing data on asthma, as well as an analysis of high-risk neighborhoods examining disparities in income, race, public and private housing, proximity to air pollution and an evaluation of existing medical facilities in each city.
The governor vetoed it, along with 28 other bills she said were not in the state’s financial plan.
In approving locally sponsored legislation, Hochul signed a bill Dec. 21 that will allow litigants to use unsworn affirmations in administrative proceedings without needing to deliver sworn affidavits that need to be notarized. It will “facilitate access to justice, especially for low-income, elderly, disabled, and rural litigants where securing a notary for a sworn statement presents challenges,” stated a memo for the bill sponsored by Ryan and Assembly Member Karen McMahon, D-Williamsville.
The same day, Hochul signed a bill that will allow websites listing incarcerated people to be searchable by the person’s name, previous name or alias. Crime victims and the public are often not informed when inmates change their name, making it tougher for them to know the person’s status, according to a memo for the bill sponsored by Peoples-Stokes and Sen. John Mannion, D-Syracuse.
On Dec. 21, Hochul also approved legislation sponsored by Ryan and Assembly Member Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, to require Empire State Development, the state’s economic development entity, to include “I Love NY Historic Small Business” in its marketing guidelines for the “I Love NY” brand as a way to highlight historic small businesses on a state registry.
On Dec. 13, Hochul signed a bill sponsored by Ryan and Assembly Member Patrick Burke, D-Orchard Park, to allow retired teachers who suspended their retirements and returned to work the ability to recalculate their benefits after two years of service. The present requirement is five years.
The same day, Hochul signed another bill, sponsored by McMahon and Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, to require healthcare practitioners to provide pregnant women and parents of infants who test positive for Down Syndrome with the most current and evidence-based information on the subject.
On Nov. 22, the governor signed a bill sponsored by Ryan and Assembly Member William Conrad, D-Tonawanda, to remove the “grandfathered” status that allowed the Amigone Funeral Home to operate the Sheridan Park Crematory in Tonawanda. A 1998 state law prohibits funeral homes from operating crematories; the Tonawanda business was allowed an exception under a 2021 Ryan-Conrad bill that allowed them to relocate their crematory.
They introduced the new law when the business had not moved in over three years.
