New York State Governor Messages to the Legislature

Chronological.

This series is comprised of original, signed messages to the legislature from Governors Thomas Dewey, W. Averell Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller. There is also one message from Lieutenant Governor Malcolm Wilson (1968). The series consists of three different types of messages: annual, special, and veto and approval messages. Annual messages provide the listing of programs the Governor would like to institute that year. Special messages intend to garner support for legislative bills recommended by the governor by providing details about issues relating to the legislation. Veto and approval messages respond to bills passed by the legislature and approved or disapproved by the governor with his rationales.

Messages concern the following issues: automobile insurance (1957); natural gas price regulation (1957); survey and preservation of state historic sites (1957); financing school construction (1957); increasing assistance to servicemen on active duty and their families (1961); nuclear fallout shelters and protection (1961); state fire prevention code (1963); local government reapportionment to conform with United States Supreme Court's "one-man-one-vote" decision (1965); health insurance and medical finance programs (1965, 1967, 1968); railroad "full-crew" legislation (1965); traffic safety (1965, 1967, 1968); state parks (1965); sex discrimination in employment and pay (1965); minimum wage increase (1965); crime and law enforcement (1967-1969); urban housing problems (1967); human rights legislation (with reference to assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.) (1968); energy needs and development (1968); urban development programs (1968); New York City municipal sanitation workers' strike (1968); status of South Mall (Empire State Plaza) construction project (1968); prohibiting firearms on college campuses (with reference to unrest and violence on college campuses (1969); development of transportation infrastructure (1969); lowering voting age from 21 to 18 (1969); hospital regulation (1969); traffic court reform (1969); job benefits and protection for agricultural workers (1969); abortion law reform (1969); expansion of day care facilities and programs 1969); and insurance and banking regulation (1969).

The series includes the signed full text of Governor Rockefeller's January 8, 1969 annual message to the legislature. There are also carbon typescripts accompanying a few of the messages in the series.

A0114-07: This accretion consists of annual, special, and veto and approval messages to the legislature from Governor Averell Harriman. The annual messages contain recommendations, suggestions, drafts of sections, background information, statistics, proposals, and outlines for legislation forwarded by the State departments and bureaus to the governor. The special messages include drafts and copies of the special messages Gov. Harriman sent to the legislature. The veto and approval messages and memoranda provide reasons for his approval and disapproval of bills passed by the legislature. The veto and approval messages are filed with copies of the bills to which they correspond. Also included in this accretion is a veto index maintained by Governor Thomas Dewey from 1943-1955.

Published in Public Papers of Averell Harriman and Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller.

A0114-07: This accretion was transferred by Governor Harriman to Syracuse University in 1959. It was later transferred to the New York State Archives in 2006 and accessioned in November 2007.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.