Further talks, but same conclusion

HARTFORD — In the never-ending cycle of meetings for the last state without a budget, legislative leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gathered yet again Thursday, broke off, conferred among themselves, then planned to return to the governor’s office.

Malloy said while the talks may be making some progress, Republicans and Democrats remain “hundreds and hundreds of millions” of dollars apart.

Closed-door caucuses started late and drifted into the mid-afternoon, putting into doubt a follow-up, three-way discussion among lawmakers and the governor.

While little appeared closer to a bipartisan budget compromise that Malloy might sign into law, at least Republican and Democratic leaders were talking to each other. A meeting with Malloy that started around 10:45 a.m. broke off an hour later, followed by another bipartisan, closeddoor meeting without the governor in Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz’s Capitol office.

A half-hour later, Democrats and Republicans went their own ways for closeddoor, lunch-hour caucuses in advance of another planned gathering in Malloy’s office at 2 p.m. the meeting, however, was delayed by party caucuses.

The governor then emerged, telling reporters that he was ready to meet throughout the rest of the day. He said that legislative leaders have been given specific research tasks to work on and then bring back to the larger group of House and Senate leaders.

“I would honestly say that we are hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars apart,” Malloy said. “I want there to be an agreement by next Friday. There has to be a lot of movement in that situation. It’s difficult for people to move those kinds of amounts of money around in a budget, so I don’t want to give a false hope. I think people are working. I am appreciative of their working. But we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars off.”

He said “very big issues,” including proposed changes to post-employment benefits for state workers and reductions to the University of Connecticut’s budget remain sticking points.

“Spending is always more popular than revenue,” Malloy said.

Meanwhile, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities asked Malloy and the General Assembly to create a new pension-reform commission and to delay the governor’s plan to shift employer costs for teacher pensions to the towns and cities.

“Recognizing the deep financial burden that current public employee pension systems have placed on the state and the need to give this matter the benefit of thorough analysis by all stakeholders, CCM’s Board of Directors is requesting that the FY 18-19 state budget proposal establish a Pension and Retirement Benefits Reform Commission,” CCM Executive Director Joe DeLong said in a statement.

Under the proposal, the new commission would research state and local employee pension programs and decide on how sustainable they are before proposing legislation to the General Assembly next year.

Malloy discounted the suggestion of CCM, which as mayor of Stamford he once led.

“The problem with statements like that is it sounds like the ’70s and ’80s and ’90s and early decades of this century,” he said. “‘Let’s study this more as we make it worse,’ so we kick it down the road so some schlub like Dan Malloy becomes governor and they have to deal with it.

“Of course, people who want more, want more,” Malloy said. “And of course, people who feel they are slighted don’t want to be slighted. The reality is that we need to make fundamental change.”

Malloy said the budget stalemate is hindering his recruitment of “several” corporations that have been negotiating to move to Connecticut.

Malloy