The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Malloy vetoes, Republicans vow override
HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy did not let the Republican budget linger long on his desk.
He vetoed the legislation Thursday morning, the day after he received it — leading GOP leaders to say they will seek an override vote on Oct. 10.
Malloy had more than a week’s head start to work on the three-page veto message: an indictment against the two-year, $40 billion GOP package that narrowly made it through the General Assembly in the predawn of Sept. 16.
As a result, more than 80 towns will see sharp reductions in municipal and school aid next week, under the second quarter of his continuing executive order.
“I cannot overstate the urgency of the need for all parties to come together to negotiate a realistic, responsible budget that addresses our state’s fiscal issues, distributes eduction aid equitably, and balances
without the use of illusory gimmicks,” Malloy wrote.
“In sum, this budget is unbalanced, unsustainable, and unwise,” Malloy said. “It cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from our colleges and universities, endangering our economic competitiveness; it creates the near certainty that our capital city will be plunged into bankruptcy; and it eviscerates proven funding and improvement programs for school districts with the greatest needs while sending more money to the wealthiest towns.”
Speaking to reporters after another two-hour, closed-door session in his office with legislative leaders, Malloy said under his barebones executive order, well over a billion dollars would be cut from state spending that could be supported by lawmakers — and taxpayers — who want spending reductions.
“It is something designed to get us through the immediacy of not having a budget immediately,” Malloy told reporters. “What’s interesting, and I said this to my Republican counterparts, ‘You know If we run the state by executive order, we’ll save $1.5 billion in spending.’ When was the last time Republicans were against saving $1.5 billion?”
But with 85 wealthier towns getting no school funding next month, the Connecticut Council of Small Towns on Thursday said they will have to raise mill rates, mail supplemental tax bills, and risk their bond ratings when they dip into their savings to continue local government services.
“We are here to urge the Legislature to please override this veto,” said Litchfield First Selectman Leo Paul Jr., stressing under Malloy’s order, his town would lose $2.3 million a year in town and school support. He and about a dozen members of the Council of Small Towns spoke with reporters after lawmakers and Malloy, outside Malloy’s office.
Republicans led by House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, of Derby, and Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano, of North Haven, immediately vowed to pursue an effort to override the veto.
“It’s no surprise that he signed the veto,” Fasano told reporters at about 3:30. “I hope that we continue to talk to reach a bipartisan deal, but eventually, if we don’t, on Oct. 10, the question for the General Assembly is going to be very simple: You have a veto, which you can override, or you’re not and you stay with your party, I presume, on the Democratic side, and say we accept the governor’s cuts and know that we don’t have a budget.”
“It is very disappointing,” Klarides said. “I think there is another opportunity and a responsibility by the legislators in this building to override this veto and move forward.”
Obtaining the two-thirds vote needed seems less likely, after the bill narrowly passed 21-15 in the Senate and 77-73 in the House.
Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said there won’t be enough support for an override.
The veto session will be Oct. 10, 12 days after the veto.
“I think the budget that passed in both chambers is a terrible budget for the state of Connecticut,” Aresimowicz said.
“Let’s pass a budget that works for the state of Connecticut,” he said.
“I think the governor in his veto message laid out, succinctly, why the budget that passed is a bad budget, not the way for the state of Connecticut to go,” Looney said. “I would certainly encourage everyone to sustain the governor’s veto.”
The state has been without a budget since July 1, after lawmakers failed to first create a package in June that majority Democrats could support.
They then balked at several attempts to negotiate with Republicans, who on Friday the 15th and early Saturday the 16th, persuaded three Democratic senators and five House Democrats to approve their budget.
Malloy’s veto included criticisms he has leveled since the passage of the legislation: it would violate union agreements; slash job training; defer necessary pension investments; and cut unacceptable amounts of aid to higher education.
The bipartisan budget talks with Malloy will pick up again on Monday afternoon.