Democrats decried Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's veto Monday of a bill to create a commission to review the state's criminal sentencing policies, and said they are considering an override attempt at a newly-scheduled June 21 veto session at the Capitol.
In issuing her veto Monday, Rell cited what she said would be an added $130,000 cost to taxpayers and said that the proposed panel's function is already performed by the General Assembly's judiciary committee.
However, Democratic legislative leaders said the veto resulted from "petty politics" by Rell's chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, and charged that Rell's cost fears are inflated. "This would be a fine candidate for a veto override" on June 21, said Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the legislature's judiciary committee.
Lawlor and his fellow judiciary co-chairman, Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, said the bill was recommended by a sentencing task force created under a 2006 state law and including many Rell appointees and other Republicans. The bill also received virtually no opposition in the General Assembly, passing unanimously in the House and 34-1 in the Senate, they said.