HARTFORD -- Governor Dannel Malloy vetoed seven bills this past legislative session.
Despite some strong opposition, none of those vetoes were overridden on Monday.
Lawmakers reconvened to decide the fate of seven carefully crafted pieces of legislation that Gov. Malloy vetoed.
To override an executive branch veto you need a supermajority, which is two-thirds support of the House and the Senate. That’s 101 votes in the House and 24 in the Senate.
The vetoed bills go back to the chamber where they originated. Five went back to the senate two were up for reconsideration in the house. The senate upheld all five vetoes. The most debated bill would have given teachers the authority to remove students from their classroom based on their behavior.
The bill was met with opposition from school superintendents and other organizations who were concerned it would disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities. The governor was concerned it would emphasize the school to prison pipeline.
“Because the veto stood does not mean that we don’t support teachers. We believe strongly. I can tell you as a former superintendent that the way we affect the children is through our teachers,” said Fran Rabinowitz, the Executive Director of CAPSS.
“Kids are entitled to have good quality education, teachers are entitled to be protected. This is something that we have to do,” said Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Len Fasano.
“While well intentioned and I certainly understand the need for it, I think we can probably have a better crafted bill,” said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff.
With 103 votes, the house was able to move their bill back to the senate which would have prohibited the governor from making ECF grant and school funding changes. The bill did not gain enough support in the Senate, so the veto was upheld.
Two vetoed bills were not even called on the floor. They included a Senate bill that would have created a public registry of convicted animal abusers and a House bill that would have made some procedural and policy changes to local Election Day rules.
Vetoes were upheld on the bill that would have allowed changes to be made to funding for the 6th year of Hartford’s financial bail out, a bill that would have increased state oversight in the Department of Children and Families and a bill that would have extended certain tax credits to the personal income tax.