A meeting between legislative leaders and Gov. Phil Murphy that ran for roughly two hours and fifteen minutes – the longest such meeting in recent days – ended without a deal reached on Thursday.
“We had a good meeting and look forward to get back at it tomorrow,” said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin.
Though he and Senate President Steve Sweeney declined to give any details about the meeting, Coughlin said legislators would meet again with Murphy Friday morning.
That leaves legislators with precious little time before the July 1 budget deadline.
An Assembly session and a Senate quorum are on the books for tomorrow, and if lawmakers manage to reach a final budget compromise on Friday or Saturday, they could push the measure through on an emergency basis, though they would need three-quarters of both chambers to vote to do so.
Republicans could stall the any potential budget compromise, potentially forcing a shutdown, if they choose not to vote in favor of the emergency, but any such resistance would be short lived, as it would delay a vote on the final budget by a matter of ours.