Gov. David Paterson has added to his weak open government record with his veto of legislation that would have allowed judges to impose penalties of up to $500 on government boards that violate laws with illegal closed-door meetings.

The governor cited substantial concerns raised about the bill from municipalities over the potential costs of the measure, and explained that he can't support legislation that has the potential to cause hardship for taxpayers, since they would foot the bill for any penalties.

But that shouldn't be a problem for any public board. The easiest way to avoid that $500 penalty is to obey the law. Talk about matters in front of the public, and use executive sessions only for those specific reasons for which the law allows.

The whole point of this legislation is to put some teeth into the law, to create a penalty that will actually be a small deterrent for boards that want to violate open meetings law and that will cause more boards to be careful about what they discuss once they're behind those closed doors.

There's one other problem with Paterson's argument that a law's penalty can't be picked up by the taxpayers - it already happens.

We've seen the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Department of Labor fine local government entities plenty of times over violations. And guess who picked up those bills? The taxpayers, of course.

We're sure Paterson is not looking to remove penalties for environmental or labor standards violations, even though those fines can be exponentially higher than the $500 proposed for the open meetings law.

Paterson has said he would like to work with the Legislature to come up with an improved version of this bill, but if that means a bill with no teeth, then we hope the Legislature says “no thanks,” overrides this veto and gets this needed piece of legislation on the books.