"From everything I hear, there's always some amount of conflict between the senate and the house."
Gov. Malloy
With the state's legislative session now over, Governor Dannel Malloy met with reporters to discuss which bills were passed, and which weren't. Malloy told reporters that he got most of what he asked for in this short session.
He thanked Democratic lawmakers for keeping his agenda separate from their intra-party rancor.
"Maybe this year," he said, "there was more of that than some other years. But from everything I hear, there's always some amount of conflict between the senate and the house. So, let me thank them for being respectful and for not making me a victim of it."
Malloy said only one bill he pushed for didn't make it out the legislative dance -- a benefit for the unemployed. He accused minority Republicans of blocking it. Still, it does leave the question of how a Democratic governor with a Democratic legislature doesn't get what he wants. State Senate President Don Williams and House Speaker Brendan Sharkey apparently had a rough session. When it came to his unemployment bill, Malloy seemed frustrated.
"If there were objections in the bill," Malloy said, "to things that were called for being done, there was also, certainly, things in the bill that everybody agreed on. Why that stuff waits until the last minute to be worked out, and why a good bill that speaks to things that everybody agrees on should be gotten done dies on the last night of the session -- I know you served in these places, but I don't get it."
That last comment was reserved for Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman. She's a former legislator. Otherwise, the governor praised several bills that passed -- including an increase to the state's minimum wage, some expansion of early childhood education, and a budget that he said contains no new taxes.
