Gov. Ned Lamont has vetoed a bill that would have more than doubled the gaming revenue the state distributes annually to cities and towns through the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund, starting with the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2025.

One of five bills Lamont vetoed Thursday, Senate Bill 1213 would have required the state to increase the fund from $52.6 million in each of the next two fiscal years to $139,380,000 annually thereafter.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, the bill’s chief proponent, said Friday she was not expecting the veto but was “not shocked” by it either. She said no representative of the Lamont administration testified during a public hearing on the bill or otherwise commented on it during the legislative session that concluded June 7.

During the session, the Appropriations Committee, the Senate and the House of Representatives all voted unanimously in favor of the bill.

Money from the state’s General Fund is transferred to the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund. It comes from the state’s 25% share of the slot-machine revenue the tribes’ respective casinos ― Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun ― generate as well as taxes on the tribes’ online sports betting and online casino gambling operations.

In a letter outlining his opposition to the bill, Lamont said the state has increased aid to cities and towns by 60% over the past five years and, further, increased payments in lieu of taxes and other state aid to municipalities in the 2023-24 state budget that takes effect Saturday.

Lamont also said the legislation “seeks to operate outside” the state’s biennial budget process “to prioritize a singular grant program without a complete understanding of the out-year budgetary implications.”

But his biggest problem with the bill, he said, was a provision limiting the power of the governor and the legislature to reduce the annual transfer from the General Fund to the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fun. According to the bill, a reduction would have required the governor to declare an emergency and a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature.

Osten said she’s been pushing for years to restore the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund to previous levels and believes the recent state-authorized expansion of gaming ― sports betting and online gambling came launched in late 2021 ― has led to revenue increases that make it feasible.

She said the fund shrank over the years as the state addressed its pension obligations.

The four other bills Lamont vetoed Thursday were:

House Bill 6496, An Act Concerning Test Bed Technologies, which was intended to reduce operating costs in state government by utilizing new technologies and products.

While he supported the bill’s intent, Lamont said it would burden state agencies with administrative mandates and “undermine our state procurement process and standards.”

“At its core,” he said, “the proposed legislation undermines the principle of competition …”

Senate Bill 73, An Act Establishing Local Representation on the Connecticut Siting Council for Local Projects, which would allow for the appointment of a local individual to the council whenever it considers an infrastructure project.

Lamont said the Siting Council, established more the 50 years ago, acts to consolidate regulation of energy and telecommunications infrastructure and avoid town-by-town regulation. He said the bill “is exactly at odds with that purpose …”

Senate Bill 1143, An Act Concerning Solid Waste Management Throughout the State, which would have required the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to conduct a request for information about infrastructure for solid waste ― material to be burned in a waste-to-energy facility or buried in a landfill as opposed to recycled.

The governor said the DEEP completed an RFI earlier this year for materials management infrastructure and that conducting another similar RFI would be duplicative.

House Bill 6893, An Act Concerning Certain Adjustments to Gross Assessments of Taxable Real Property, which Lamont said would significantly limit the ability of local tax assessors to adjust assessments following a change in a gross assessment by a board of assessment appeals.

Currently, he said, assessors can adjust the assessed value of taxable property each year to ensure similar property is assessed equitably. The bill would have expressly restricted the ability of a tax assessor to reassess property until the next valuation, except under narrow circumstances.

“This represents a significant change in dynamic,” Lamont said.

He said it was more problematic that the bill sought to resolve a “local, seemingly singular, dispute” in a particular town.

It’s unknown whether legislative leadership will schedule a vote to override any of Lamont’s vetoes.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com