Gov.Dannel Malloy has vetoed the Republican budget passed by the General Assembly almost two weeks ago, and Republican legislative leaders say they’re working to override it.
Malloy has been promising a veto of the two-year tax and spending plan almost since its passage -- which only happened because of the support of some Democratic lawmakers.
The budget arrived on his desk this week, and Thursday he returned it unsigned, along with his veto letter, which dubs the document “unbalanced, unsustainable and unwise.”
He said the changes it envisions to the funding of the state’s pension system are financially and legally unsound. Malloy believes the budget would return to underfunding the pension system and that changes it makes to benefits -- without consulting state labor unions -- would invite a constitutional challenge.
The governor is also scathing about the document’s potential effects on Connecticut’s economy and education system.
“This budget undermines our efforts to grow our economy and our tax base. It would do lasting harm to our increasingly competitive K-12 and higher education systems, as well as our efforts to create a highly trained, capable workforce,” he wrote in the letter.
In response, Republican House minority leader Themis Klarides called the veto “infuriating.”
“Make no mistake, the governor has stamped his seal on this crisis faced by municipalities and people who depend on core state services,” she said in a statement. “He rejected the only plan that made it through the legislature, favoring his roughshod approach that will undoubtedly draw cities and towns deeper into the ‘permanent fiscal crisis’ he and his team in the legislature fueled.”
She pledged to push Democrats in the legislature to support the GOP in voting for a veto override.
Connecticut is now the only state in the nation to have failed to pass a budget for the current fiscal year.
Copyright 2017 Connecticut Public Radio
