WEST SENECA, N.Y. -- Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill late Wednesday that would keep the Children’s Psychiatric Center in West Seneca as a separate facility.

The state intends to merge the children’s facility with the Buffalo Psychiatric Center on Forest Avenue.

The bill stopping the merger was passed unanimously by the state legislature this summer. More than 16,000 Western New Yorkers signed a petition calling on the governor to keep the two facilities separate.

Assemblyman Mickey Kearns already has called for a special session to override the veto.

“This veto did not afford us a reason and savings of $3 million is not justifiable when the WNY Children’s Psychiatric Center has: the lowest 30 and 90 day readmission rates; scored 99.9 percent by the Joint Commission and is ranked top 10 percent of any psychiatric facility in the United States,” Kearns says in the letter to New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Kearns previously stated his intent to join an ongoing lawsuit against the governor and the State Department of Mental Health filed by the Save Our Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center Coalition if the bill was vetoed.

State Senator Patrick Gallivan echoes Kearns' frustration and call for action.

"I am terribly disappointed that the governor and the commissioner of the Office of Mental Health have ignored the Legislature and the will of the people of Western New York," Gallivan says in a letter released Thursday afternoon. "The governor and the commissioner have essentially said that our children deserve less than the best. I will be asking legislative leadership and my colleagues to consider overriding this ill-informed and shameful veto." 

In a document explaining why he vetoed a number of bills, Cuomo says the current CPC is “in need of substantial repair” and that consolidating the two facilities would be in keeping with how other state-operated services are administered. He says concerns about the safety of younger patients at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center are “simply inaccurate,” as inpatient treatment facilities will remain separate from adults.