Malloy: Put it in writing

Doubting there is an actual final document to review, the governor on Friday said he won’t meet legislative leaders to possibly end the nation’s longest budget statement until he sees the proposal in black and white.

Meeting with reporters in his Capitol office, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he backed out of any weekend meetings with House and Senate leaders because there doesn’t seem to be a final draft.

“Obviously I cannot give feedback on something that I have not seen and reviewed,” Malloy said, two days after the lawmakers said they had a tentative

deal. “Give me a full document I can review and then we’ll meet.”

Malloy said that “unfortunately and perhaps foolishly on my part,” he thought when lawmakers asked to sit down with him to review their tentative budget, there would be an “actual document.”

While the projected twoyear, $41 billion tax-andspending package finally won a handshake deal, House and Senate leaders of both parties stressed the need to go back to their caucuses before taking a final deal to Malloy. The governor successfully vetoed

a Republican budget earlier in the month, and is seen as a key to finally getting a new budget.

“Each day that goes by since that Wednesday announcement does give me more concern about when we’ll have a final product,” Malloy said. He singled out as cryptic a statement by a Republican leader indicating there was an agreement to take ratepayer money from the state’s Green Bank that supports sustainable energy sources, to balance the budget.

“What’s happening with education?” Malloy asked. “We’ve been told poor towns

are getting aid. But how much? Is it enough to begin to address the massive inequities in education between wealthy and less-affluent towns? Will it take years to ramp up to have any meaningful difference in lives of children who, say, started kindergarten this year?”

While rank-and-file House Democrats and Republicans reviewed the budget outlines on Thursday, they will meet again next week to go over further details and possible changes. On Friday afternoon, nonpartisan staff from the legislative Office of Fiscal Analysis visited the Senate Republican caucus room. The two Senate caucuses will review the package early next week.

“Legislative leaders are continuing to flesh out the final details of the bipartisan budget agreement reached in principle earlier this week,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven. “Once these details of the fully balanced bipartisan budget that represents consensus in the General Assembly are settled, we will share them with our caucus and the governor.”