Sen. James Skoufis, D-Cornwall, is pictured during a recent news conference.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has issued her first vetoes of 2025 – all of which were bills sponsored by a Senate Democrat who is often critical of Hochul.

All seven of the bills were sponsored in the state Senate by Sen. James Skoufis, D-Cornwall and a frequent critic of Gov. Kathy Hochul. Hochul did sign 16 bills sponsored by Skoufis that have been signed into law already this year.

Skoufis been critical over late budgets the last two years, including calling Hochul an authoritarian and a dictator during the 2025 budget process. Skoufis introduced legislation earlier this year that would have kept Hochul’s name from appearing on inflation refund checks that were part of Hochul’s budget proposal and which have begun appearing in state residents’ bank accounts in recent weeks.

Most, though not all, of the bills that were vetoed last week were supported by local state lawmakers, with several passing unanimously or with a token vote against them. The bills, and local lawmakers’ votes, were:

– A.247, which would establish a specialized electric vehicle emergency response training program. The bill passed the Assembly unanimously and passed the Senate 57-1, with Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voting in favor. The bill would have directed the state fire administrator to make available a specialized electric vehicle emergency response training program for first responders and required the state fire administrator to notify fire departments, police departments, EMS agencies, and tow operators of the availability of the training.

– A.1096, legislation that dealt with pricing changes for online grocery delivery and online pick-up services. The bill passed the Assembly unanimously and the Senate 60-2, with Borrello one of the two negative votes. The bill would have required food retailers to disclose whether the price of the product online is higher or lower than the price of the product in the store.

– A.1365 would have required nursing homes to designate dedicated storage spaces for the storage of the bodies of deceased persons during a disaster declaration from the governor. The bill passed the Assembly by a 108-41 vote, with Assemblyman Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield, and Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, both voting against the bill. The Senate vote was 38-21 with Borrello voting against the legislation.

– A.3273 would have enacted the “New York State Resident Experience Act of 2025.” The bill passed the Assembly unanimously and was approved unanimously in the Senate. The bill would have required state agencies that provide or fund resident-facing services to collect data from the people they serve to assess and enhance program efficiency and improve resident experience.

– A.3425 would have set limits to the maximum allowable timeframes to respond to requests for records under the freedom of information act. The bill passed both chambers of the state Legislature unanimously. The legislation would have limited the time to respond to FOIL requests to 180 days for requests made before Dec. 31, 2026, 90 days for requests in 2027 and 60 days for requests starting in 2028. Exceptions would have been allowed only under specific conditions (federal legal restrictions, inaccessible records, or overly voluminous requests). And, in that event, agencies would have been required to notify the requestor and the Committee on Open Government in writing, provide a detailed explanation signed by the agency commissioner and give monthly updates until fulfilled.

– A.7691, which would have increased the period of supervision required for certain real estate license applications. The bill passed 143-1 in the Assembly and was approved 57-2 in the Senate with Borrello voting in favor. The bill would have increased the total number of consecutive years as a licensed real estate salesperson prior to becoming a licensed real estate broker from two years to five years.

– A.8314, which would have required the state Health Department to enter into a contract for the digitalization and indexing of certain vital records. The Assembly unanimously passed the bill in June while the Senate passed the bill 50-9 with Borrello in favor.