ALBANY - Seemingly turning his back on union supporters who backed him for his third term, Gov. George Pataki on Thursday vetoed dozens more pro-union bills approved by the Legislature this election year.

Several of the bills would sweeten public worker pensions and make them eligible for more disability benefits. Others sought to amend the state Taylor Law, which bans strikes by public workers.

Pataki said governments, school districts and their taxpayers can't afford many of the bills. Thursday's action brings the total number of vetoes to 411 this year, his third highest number in a year.

Pataki's office said the vetoes were more a reflection of the individual bills than any turning away from past labor support.

“This year's session resulted in a record setting number of bills, many of which have been vetoed a number of times before,” Pataki spokesman David Catalfamo said. “The governor carefully reviews each bill on its own merits, but the fact is his veto power is one of his primary tools for fiscal restraint and the governor has used it to protect the hardworking families of this state.”

Pataki also vetoed other measures, including one that would have forced the World Trade Center Memorial Fund directors to make an “irrevocable pledge” to charge no admission or fee for admission to the planned memorial, museum and visitor center. Pataki said much of the memorial complex will be free to the public and all of it will be free to surviving families and military veterans, but the law would have hamstrung organizers and operators of a facility expected to cost $50 million a year to run.

The Legislature could return to attempt overrides of the vetoes. Many of the bills were approved overwhelmingly and it takes a two-thirds majority in each house to override.

One of the vetoed labor bills would have required state and local governments and school districts to accept a union's last offer if the public employer is deemed to be bargaining in bad faith. That last offer would become the labor contract until it was amended with agreement by both sides.

“This presumes a systemic failure by public employers to negotiate in good faith, which is not the case,” Pataki wrote in his veto message. He said 85 percent of public contracts are resolved without the need for outside mediation. Pataki said the state Public Employment Relations Board, an independent board that handles the disputes, “believes that these situations are generally not attributable to a lack of good faith on the part of the public employer.”

The bill had no sanction against unions that failed to bargain in good faith, Pataki noted.

“The bill would allow a union's last contract offer to be imposed on a public employer, regardless of how unreasonable such an offer may be,” Pataki wrote. “The bill would ... destroy the level playing field required for fair negotiations.”

The vetoes follow dozens of other rejections this summer by Pataki, who enjoyed the support of organized labor, particularly early in his 12-year tenure.

There was no immediate comment from the Assembly and Senate majorities.

“In this time of every-increasing pension costs, I am unwilling to impose new fiscal burdens on the state and its taxpayers,” said the Republican governor, whose term ends Dec. 31.

Pataki vetoed 1,417 bills in 1998, mostly to eliminate spending proposals during one of his election year showdowns with the Legislature.

Pataki also signed a bill into law this week that makes full-fledged law enforcement officers of the state's 130 forest rangers. They will now have more authority to enforce laws and environmental regulations in the Adirondack and Catskill parks, said Pataki spokesman Pete Constantakes.