POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus Tuesday vetoed County Legislature resolutions that would pay counties $795,000 to house inmates in their county jails.

Dutchess County is over state approved inmate capacity and must house prisoners in other counties including Ulster and Orange.

The Steinhaus move is “extremely irresponsible,” said Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins.

"Our sheriff, Sheriff Anderson, has an agreement with the sheriffs in other counties to do this, so to me, this is not just unfortunate, but it invites legal action down the road and I certainly think it could be an impediment to the sheriff’s being able to negotiate spots to put our prisoners,” he said. “Certainly common sense would dictate that another county would not take our prisoners if we weren’t going to pay for it.”

Steinhaus said that until the County Legislature and Sheriff “insist on the options of double bunking and reinstating the variance and pressure the Governor and state elected officials I will not support more and more property taxpayer money for this folly.”

Steinhaus also vetoed legislation to pay almost $177,000 to cover costs over and above those budgeted for the Board of Elections. “How can a department not know until November that the department’s budget will be short by such a large amount?” he asked in his veto message.

He also rejected a resolution authorizing a grant agreement with the state to provide “one time incentive awards” to the District Attorney for assistants in the DA’s office. “This is the second year for this ‘one time incentive’,” Steinhaus wrote.