31.   Aides to Silver, Pataki and Republican state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno continued budget negotiations Wednesday, but without substantial progress.

32.   Agreement on how much money is available is a crucial precursor to serious budget negotiations between the two houses.

33.   Both Katz and Leonard, who also has participated in budget negotiations, acknowledge that the deal has probably already been cut.

34.   Budget negotiations are already prickly because of Senate efforts to raise Medicare premiums for wealthier seniors, as well as the age when people can enroll in the program.

35.   Budget negotiations are usually much harder when the economy is in dire straits and spending cuts are proposed.

36.   Budget negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans and end-of-session shenanigans have left a half-dozen measures important to Arizona hanging in legislative limbo.

37.   Budget negotiations between the Clinton administration and Capitol Hill lawmakers ended without progress today, with Republicans demanding greater cuts in domestic spending from the administration.

38.   Budget negotiations ended about two weeks ago, virtually before they began, and the two sides cannot even agree on why.

39.   Budget negotiations have collapsed in Albany, legislation is stalled, the government is close to frozen.

40.   Budget negotiations in New York are almost always hammered out in private by the governor, the two legislative leaders and a handful of staff members.