Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed a bill Wednesday that legislators passed unanimously, despite a warning from the Department of Criminal Justice that it would have undermined the integrity of the bail bond system.
One of the bill’s provisions would have let bail bondsmen off the hook for defendants who fail to answer a court date, so long as they show up sometime in the following six months.
“The objective of a bail bond is to ensure that an arrested person appears in court as required by that bond,” Malloy wrote in his veto message.
The bill was opposed at a public hearing before the Judiciary Committee by the state Insurance Department, the Judicial Department and the Department of Criminal Justice. The panel approved the bill, 44 to 0.
The governor also vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have added four legislators or their designees to the Connecticut Sentencing Commission, which Malloy saw as a legislative imposition on a criminal justice agency.
The bill would have given commission seats to the two co-chairman and the two ranking members of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
“It would be inappropriate for legislators to sit on the commission as full voting members,” Malloy wrote in his veto message.
On Wednesday, as expected, Malloy signed a law that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods if nearby states with an aggregate population of 20 million adopt a similar requirement. Malloy’s office took no note of the signing, other than to include it in a list of signed bills.
The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate did issue statements.
“I have heard from local organic farmers and individuals from across my district about the effects of GMO’s,” said Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn. “Connecticut families deserve to have all the information they need to make informed, healthy choices when feeding their families.”
“I’m proud that Connecticut is the first state in the nation to pass GMO labeling legislation while protecting consumers from cost increases,” said House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden. “Our legislation should spur our neighboring states to join us in this effort. In absence of federal action, Connecticut has once again taken the lead on an important public safety issue.”
Malloy now has signed 251 bills and vetoed four from the 2013 session that concluded on June 5.