General Assembly declines to override Malloy vetoes

The legislature declined Monday to override any of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s vetoes this session despite some consternation over his rejection of a bill impacting the acquisition of Waterbury Hospital.

The bill would have made it easier for Vanguard, a forprofit company, to acquire Waterbury Hospital. Essentially, the bill would have established a governance structure that would have permitted Vanguard to purchase physician practices through a medical foundation and it would have given it two seats on the foundation’s board of directors.

Representatives of the labor unions, Waterbury lawmakers, and lobbyists for the hospital clashed in the final hours of the session when it looked like the bill wasn’t going to pass. But the bill cleared both chambers June 5 in the final hours of the legislative session.

Malloy vetoed the legislation this month, saying the changes required more scrutiny. But proponents of the bill accused him of bending to the labor unions who lobbied against it.

There was some confusion among lawmakers as to why Malloy rejected the bill given his administration’s hand in negotiating it, however, they did not attempt to override that veto or any others when they met Monday for a constitutionally-mandated veto session.

House Speaker Brendan Sharkey said House Democrats did not consider voting to override the hospital veto.

“I don’t think we would have had the numbers to do that,” he said.

Still, Sharkey said Malloy’s rejection of the bill caught him by surprise. He said there had not been much communication between the administration and the House regarding the legislation after its passage.

“I didn’t know that was going to be a problem. I don’t know that there was a lot of communication at the staff level, but it was a surprise to me. I wasn’t expecting it,” he said.

Sharkey acknowledged that the timing of the Waterbury Hospital acquisition was “acute,” but said he wants to revisit the issue next year.

“Hopefully that will be enough time to satisfy some of the governor’s concerns,” he said.

But the veto was more problematic for some Republicans who complained of a flawed legislative process and financially- strapped hospitals.

“We have Waterbury and we have Bristol Hospital that are trying their hardest to survive, as every hospital is. I think we should give them every opportunity possible,” House Deputy Minority Leader Themis Klarides said.

Klarides said the administration had been involved in negotiating the bill with Democratic and Republican lawmakers. She said she thought they had arrived at a “solution that was mutually beneficial to everybody.”

“Quite frankly, the fact that the governor’s office helped negotiate it to get to that point with our members and members of the Democratic Caucus and then he vetoed it, I think brought it to another level of problematic,” she said.

Rep. Whit Betts, R-Bristol, said he was “disappointed” and “outraged” with the veto and the lack of discussion about the bill during Monday’s session.

“As a legislator, I am absolutely stunned and utterly disappointed we did not take up an issue as critical as this in a veto session,” Betts said.