Lawmakers to override Malloy veto

Bipartisan effort designed to restore Medicare Savings Program to 90,000

In a warm-up for next week’s opening of its short session, the General Assembly will hold a special meeting Wednesday aimed at crushing the governor’s recent veto of a Medicare savings plan.

It should be an easy lift for lawmakers, who approved the legislation on Jan. 8 by votes of 130-3 in the House and 32-1 in the Senate. All that’s needed is a twothirds vote in each chamber to restore income guidelines for more than 90,000 elderly and disabled participants in the state’s Medicare Savings Program.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has been sniping with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — particularly Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, of North Haven — disagreed with the Legislature over the funding mechanism for restoring about $54 million to retain the income levels that were to have been cut in half at the beginning of January.

The income thresholds of between $2,120 a month for singles to $3,328 for couples, would have been cut to $1,025 for singles and $1,847 for couples.

In December, Malloy announced the state Department of Social Services found funding for the popular savings program to run through the fiscal year ending June 30, giving lawmakers breathing room. Malloy had wanted the General Assembly to focus more on a deficit in the current year’s budget that has now ballooned to about $240 million.

Speaker of the House Joe

Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, is scheduled to gavel in the veto-override session at 11 a.m. Wednesday. When the House finishes its business, the bill will move to the Senate. Republican and Democratic leaders agree on the override.

“The General Assembly has spoken clearly in overwhelmingly voting for the bipartisan plan to restore the Medicare Savings Program,” Senate President Pro Temore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said Tuesday. “On Wednesday, I expect that Democrats and Republicans will remain consistent in their votes to help the many seniors and residents with disabilities who rely on the program.”

Lawmakers agreed to restore the funding levels after complaints from

constituents.

In addition to working on his budget-adjustment proposals and in preparation for the start of the 13-week budget-adjustment session next week, Malloy on Wednesday morning will discuss options for financing transportation projects. Fasano was critical this week of the governor, stressing a 2015 GOP transit plan did not include either higher gas taxes or tolls.

“One of the biggest challenges facing our state is the decadeslong refusal to invest in our roads, bridges, tunnels, and rail,” Kelly Donnelly, Malloy’s communications director, said in a statement. “This ill-conceived GOP plan would undermine Connecticut’s ability to compete with neighboring states and directly harm the state’s economy. In short, while Senator Fasano, who has no original ideas of his own, tries to score cheap political points, legislative Democrats

are putting forward real proposals to move Connecticut forward.”

Legislative Democrats this week announced a revived attempt to bring back tolls that could generate as much as $800 million a year in new revenue. Republican and Democratic leaders met through most last summer and fall in an attempt to reach a bipartisan plan on dealing with sharp decreases in tax revenue.

Fasano, in response to Malloy on Wednesday, said criticism of the Republican transportation funding plan is partisan politics.

“The governor clearly still doesn’t understand the ideas Republicans have put on the table, nor does he care, because in his world the only ideas that matter are his own,” Fasano said.

Malloy