Rep. Candelora: Politics Over Good Public Policy

In our most recent legislative veto session, the Democrat-controlled legislature sadly chose politics over good public policy.  The state constitution requires that the House and Senate convene for special session to discuss bills that are vetoed by the governor.  A two-thirds majority vote of all the members in each chamber is needed to override a gubernatorial veto.  All of the bills vetoed by the governor passed unanimously out of the committee process and the Senate, and nearly unanimously out of the House during the legislative session. Since the majority party leadership was unwilling to entertain debate or votes on these vetoed bills, my Republican colleagues and I pushed for a veto session to gage whether or not the bills vetoed by the governor should be overturned, and to provide the public with an opportunity to hear this debate.  Nonetheless, our attempt at having a fair debate was shut down by the majority party in the Senate. Furthermore, only one bill was reconsidered in the House. Essentially, the decision not to override eight of the nine vetoes was made by the majority party leadership behind closed doors, similar to the budget proceedings this session. I supported two education bills, one which established minimum qualifications for Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education and another which would protect a teacher’s personnel file from unsubstantiated claims of misconduct.  These bills, along with the nine others that were vetoed, were carefully drafted during the legislative process before receiving unanimous support – yet it failed to be overturned or reconsidered for that matter. Despite heavy criticism from the education community, the public and news media, the Democrat leadership chose to stay in lockstep with the governor and continue the tradition of refusing to override any of Malloy’s vetoes since he took office in 2011.  A dramatic change in policy where the Democrats overrode 7 out of 19 of Governor Rell’s vetoes in 2009.  This is not how government should work, elected officials should seek good policy over politics with an open and transparent legislative process that puts the citizens of Connecticut above all else. Nearly all of the legislative Democrats proved that they were simply not willing to deal with the effects associated with standing up for Connecticut’s education system; it was much easier for them to avoid doing the right thing and challenge the governor on his veto. The citizens of Connecticut deserve legislators who are willing and able to put politics aside for good policy. This veto illustrates a very real and growing problem in Hartford: The legislation that passed nearly unanimously months ago failed to pass the legislative process now due to political discourse and attitudes at the Capitol. It now stands that the governor’s vetoes will remain in effect. Is this what the citizens of Connecticut deserve? I say no. One-party rule should not come before good public policy. Regretfully, the reality is just that. I’m ashamed to say that this scenario was one where politics outweighed a progressive outlook on our education system.