State Reps. Pam Staneski & Charles Ferraro both voted today in the House of Representatives to override Governor Malloy’s veto of the bi-partisan (8-30g) Affordable Housing compromise bill, HB-6880 and also was overridden in the State Senate.
Rep. Staneski said, “I am proud of the work that was originally put into this bi-partisan legislation when it passed the House in May and equally proud that my colleagues in the legislature continued their support and voted to override the governor’s veto. This legislation was a modest step towards affordable housing reform which hoped to offer towns an attainable goal of developing and reaching a moratorium. Today the people’s voice was heard in the House, my hope is that it will be heard in the Senate too.”
“We came together in the House and Senate today, Republicans and Democrats, to reject the governor’s poor decision to veto the much-needed Affordable Housing bill that was passed during the regular session,” said Rep. Ferraro. “We need affordable housing in our state, but the current laws on the books are outdated and need to be changed. Our municipalities urgently need relief from predatory developers, who use existing affordable housing laws to circumvent local zoning laws, and this legislation will deliver relief. ”
The bi-partisan (8-30g) Affordable Housing required a two thirds vote of the House of Representatives to override the governor’s veto. The veto was overridden 101-47.
Under the current 8-30g statue, towns like Milford had very little chance of ever achieving the high bar for a moratorium that allowed predatory developers to sidestep local zoning laws. It’s clearly been a difficult and complicated issue to work on with the majority in the legislature not in favor of any changes.
Each year the legislature has a veto session to meets to consider whether to override vetoes by the Governor. An override requires a two-thirds vote by each chamber (House & Senate) which would mean the House of Representatives would need 101 votes and the Senate would need 24 votes.
During the 2017 legislative session in May the legislation received 116 votes (77%) in the House of Representatives and 30 votes (83%) in the State Senate.