New York City Council members say a budget dispute
between Council Speaker Peter Vallone and Mayor Rudy
Giuliani "centers on the Mayor's insistence that the Speaker
drop his call for a referendum on whether the city should
finance" a new ballpark for the Yankees in Manhattan,
according to Dan Barry of the N.Y. TIMES. Yesterday,
Giuliani vetoed "more than" $196M from the city budget,
although council members were "quick to point out" that the
vetoes were "largely symbolic." Vallone said the council
will "easily" override the veto (N.Y. TIMES, 6/11). The
Mayor's budget vetos came just three hours after Vallone
"introduced a bill for a referendum on spending public
money" for a new Yankee ballpark (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/11).
The referendum "is considered certain to become law" because
Vallone has "tight control over the Democratic-dominated
council." Giuliani said that Vallone's motivation for
introducing the referendum was "he would get 100,000 more
votes if he put this on the ballot." Vallone is seeking the
Democratic nomination for Governor. Giuliani: "[T]o create
a difficult problem in a very sensitive negotiation, which
this will no doubt do, for a city that has had a terrible
record at keeping sports teams, just in order to get
yourself 100,000 votes on the ballot, seems to me the wrong
thing to do" (Norimitsu Onishi, N.Y. TIMES, 6/11).
