Rep. Yaccarino Criticizes Senate Democrats for Upholding Malloy Vetoes

State Representative Dave Yaccarino (R-87) joined members of the General Assembly’s House and Senate chambers on Monday, June 25^th for a veto session to overturn Governor Malloy’s veto of seven bills.

“I am extremely disappointed that Republican efforts to override Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s vetoes of multiple bills were thwarted by Senate Democrats. The vetoed bills all passed by the legislature with vast bipartisan support, but still Democrat legislators choose to side with the governor. We should always put people over politics,” Rep. Yaccarino said.

Rep. Yaccarino voted with a majority of his colleagues in the House to override Public Act (P.A.) 18-35, An Act Prohibiting The Executive Branch from Making Rescissions Or Other Reductions to the Education Cost Sharing Grant During The Fiscal Year. The bill was taken up in the Senate, but did not secure the necessary votes to override the veto.

Following the passage of the compromise budget in October, Governor Malloy used an executive order to cut funding mid-year to several towns across the state. P.A. 18-35, had the veto been overridden, would have prohibited future governors from making rescissions to a school board’s education cost sharing grant during the fiscal year. Towns have asked for more predictability and sustainability from the legislature, which resulted in this bill.

Despite the bill’s unanimous passage in the Senate on May 9^th and overwhelming support in the House, 117-32, the governor vetoed P.A. 18-35 earlier this month. While every Republican in the House and Senate voted in favor of the override, ten Senate Democrats changed their position during the veto session, effectively killing the bill.

Another bill vetoed by the governor was S.B. 528, An Act Concerning State Contract Assistance Provided To Certain Municipalities, which corrected the improper financial bailout of Hartford. S.B. 528 passed the House 105-45 and Senate 28-6, enough votes to easily override any veto if legislators voted the same during the veto session. Unfortunately, the Senate Democrats never called the bill for a vote, despite its overwhelming support. In this past fiscal year, Hartford was given $420,446,241 in taxpayer money, not including the monies given to non-profits in Hartford.

S.B. 261, An Act Extending the Manufacturing Apprenticeship Tax Credit to Pass-Through Entities, would allow pass-through companies – those set up as S corporations or limited liability companies (LLCs) that pass business profits to the owner and are taxed at his or her individual rate –  to utilize the apprenticeship tax credit when filing personal income taxes. The manufacturing apprenticeship credit is equivalent to the lesser of $6 per hour, $7,500, or 50 percent of the actual apprenticeship wages for each apprentice employed by a given company, and expires on a schedule determined by the length of the apprenticeship. The tax credit is currently available to C Corporations. Senate Democrats’ voted against this job-creating measure and consequently the bill did not make its way to the House for a vote.

A recent survey of 48 local businesses on behalf of the Connecticut Association of Smaller Manufacturers (CASM) showed that 85 percent of Connecticut’s small manufacturing businesses are organized as S-corporations or LLCs. Further, 65 percent of respondents said the tax credit would allow them to hire between 1-3 new employees, and 15 percent said they could hire more than 4 new employees. This failure to override means approximately 121 new jobs will not be created.