Legislators announce tentative, bipartisan budget deal

From CT Mirror.

State legislative leaders declared Wednesday they had crafted the framework of a bipartisan deal to end Connecticut’s 110-day budget impasse, while conceding some key details, including distribution of town aid, remained to be resolved.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who was not a party to the talks, expressed skepticism that the talks had produced a deal that would survive close scrutiny of rank-and-file lawmakers or his administration.

Anticipating the skepticism by Malloy and others in light of the dearth of details released by the lawmakers, Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven said the story of the day was how far the bipartisan talks had come, not what work remains.

“A lot of people said, ‘You won’t get there.’ And we did,” Fasano said.

After more than four hours of talks, Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate said at a joint press conference they would begin discussing the framework with rank-and-file members in closed-door caucuses starting Thursday with the goal of voting on the plan sometime next week.

See the full story from CT Mirror online.