Hochul to issue second pocket veto since becoming governor

And here's what's up at the Capitol next week, including a Mamdani visit.

Good afternoon — It’s Friday and Frozen Yogurt Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• Gov. Kathy Hochul intends to pocket veto a bill Friday, with lawmakers planning to take a second look at the measure.

• Here’s what’s happening at the state Capitol next week, including an expected visit by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

• Lawmakers will also have an opportunity next week to get a clearer picture on Hochul’s plans for Medicaid and the state’s prisons.

• There’s a SUNY connection to this year’s Winter Olympics, which begin today.

• A new bill seeks to ban all betting on elections. Another is targeted at suspected PFAS in biosolids used by farmers.

Names in today’s CapCon: Kathy Hochul, Zohran Mamdani, Sophia Kirkby, Chris Lillis, John B. King, Jr., Riccardo Bianchi, Letitia James, Thomas P. DiNapoli, Carl E. Heastie, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Antonio Delgado, Drew Warshaw, Raj Goyle, Adam Bunkeddeko, James McDonald, Rowan Wilson, Joseph Zayas, Daniel F. Martuscello III, Shelley Mayer, Luis Sepulveda, Didi Barrett, Peter Harckham

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(Will Waldron/Times Union)

🗺️ Hochul plans to pocket veto a bill on new, reshuffled judicial districts

Gov. Kathy Hochul has until midnight tonight to act on two bills approved by the state Legislature last year. She plans to pocket veto one of them, according to sources in the state Legislature.

One of the bills is the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which Hochul said in December she intends to sign.

Lawmakers in both chambers passed a bill on Wednesday with amendments to that measure negotiated with Hochul in exchange for her approval. She doesn’t have to sign both simultaneously.

Pocket vetoes are rare in New York. They’re different from pocket vetoes at the federal level, when a bill is automatically vetoed if a president fails to sign it within 10 days of receiving it from Congress.

It’s the opposite in New York. If a governor doesn’t act on a bill within 10 days of it being sent to their desk, excluding Sundays, it automatically becomes law.

The exception is when a bill is delivered to the governor’s desk at the very end of the year. Instead of 10 days, the governor gets 30 days into the new year to act on it. If they don’t, it’s a pocket veto.

Hochul has only issued one pocket veto since she became governor. That was last year, when she pocket vetoed a bill related to reimbursement rates for the transportation of certain private school students.

There’s no indication that Hochul plans to backtrack on her commitment to sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act. If, for whatever reason, that did happen, it would be a huge reversal. Hochul held a public event announcing her decision to sign the bill last year.

But the second bill is not expected to meet the same fate and Democrats in the state Legislature don’t plan to hold it against Hochul.