Deadline another day closer

2 hours, no deals on budget discussions

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and leaders of the General Assembly met Wednesday for what they called a relatively fruitful two-hour meeting.

But a final decision was not made on possible legislative action for a $70 million federal reimbursement for state hospitals.

While overall feelings and positions on the stalled budget process were aired among House and Senate leaders and their top staff, no final agreement was reached, meaning on Sunday, when Malloy frees up education funding in his bare-bones executive order, dozens of Connecticut’s wealthier towns will not be receiving checks.

The Connecticut Council of Small Towns on Wednesday called on Malloy to sign the recent Republican budget, which he vows to veto, into law. In response to that request, Malloy said COST apparently doesn’t understand the ramifications of the GOP plan, which arrived on his desk Wednesday afternoon, and which he has five days to sign, veto, or sign and exercise line-item veto power.

“On its face, it’s not in balance,” Malloy told reporters after hosting the longest closed-door bipartisan budget session. “We had discussions on issues and how people felt about one issue or another issue, but there aren’t any numbers on paper. A allowing people to air positions is an important step.”

He has vowed to veto the package.

Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano said after Malloy’s expected veto, he will attempt to gather the two-thirds support needed for a legislative override.

The Senate passed the bill 21-15, with three Democrats supporting the bill, while five Democrats in the House voted for it.

“These are very complicated, sometimes personal issues,” said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby. “We have to express what we feel as leaders, and then we also have to go back to our caucuses. We’re not there yet, but there are very serious conversations and it’s good to have them. It doesn’t always mean that you have agreement at the end, but you have to have them to know if you have an agreement.”

“What we were able to do is talk about the issues that we had differences on and then to dig down to see what those differences really were,” Fasano said. “I think that helps to understand each one’s perspective; to see if we could go back, see what each of us has said, and then to either come their way, come our

way, or find some middle ground.”

“We had a detailed discussion on the major areas where we have differences,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, adding there were in-depth discussions on the state’s formula for public education; teacher pensions; and other structural changes. “Was there a resolution on those points? No, but I think as Sen. Fasano said, there is a clearer understanding on each of those issues and where movement may be possible.”

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk said Republicans joining Democrats in the daily postmeeting news conferences is in itself a good sign.

In related events Wednesday, Fasano joined Republicans in Hamden to rally in favor of Malloy signing the GOP budget, while in the Capitol complex, Connecticut State University and community college students and faculty held a news conference for Malloy to veto the budget.

“There’s not a substitute

budget in place,” Fasano said. “Let’s make that the law and make amendments to that. But are you really going to leave the state without a budget? Let’s get a veto override and then we can amend the existing budget that’s out there. Otherwise you’re going to leave the state in this crisis and in this chaos of not knowing what towns can spend what boards of education can spend, what agencies can spend, other than what the governor does with his executive order.”

Fasano plans to push the override idea if bipartisan talks fail to create a compromise two-year $40 billion budget.

Looney is advising Senate members to prepare to meet on Friday morning to act on a possible hospitalreimbursement bill. But lawmakers won’t know until Thursday, after a meeting Ben Barnes, Malloy’s budget chief, will hold Wednesday morning with the Connecticut Hospital Association. “We’re expecting this to be a bipartisan vote,” Looney said.