Gov. David Paterson announced today that he vetoed a bill that would have provided $5 million in state lottery aid to the Mount Vernon School District. The governor explained that he vetoed the bill because it would have given funds to a district with an unbalanced budget, and set a “dangerous precedent of encouraging schools not to balance their budgets and wait for lottery aid to bail them out.”

It was one of 14 bills that Paterson vetoed this week. “This is not a time to add to the state’s spending or to increase the burden on the state’s taxpayers. This is the time for fiscal responsibility, and that means vetoing bills that increase costs to taxpayers,” Paterson said in a press release today.

The Mount Vernon school district had planned to use the $5 million in aid for books and for infrastructure improvements including a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The district also planned to spend $1.9 million on devices called student engagement kits, which are hand-held remotes that students use to answer questions and that help teachers assess classroom needs.

School officials held up the $5 million in state aid as a key reason why city residents should vote for the 2009-2010 Mount Vernon budget plan. Officials repeated the claim that the district would only get the aid if the schools budget passed, which it did. Some city residents said the aid was a key factor in their decision to vote in favor of the budget.