TRENTON – Moments ago, Speaker Craig Coughlin appeared without Senate President Steve Sweeney  to give an apparently war-footed update on the budget situation – and stand by the $35.5 billion budget he and Sweeney back.

“The budget is responsible and balanced and supported by OLS and funds most – if not all – of the Governor’s priorities,” Coughlin told reporters about a half hour prior to a scheduled budget press conference by Governor Phil Murphy. “The bottom line is this: the legislature has fulfilled its constitutional obligation.”

Sound. Strong., he said.

“It’s never been our job to accept a budget presented by the Governor and accept without change and modification,” the Speaker added. “We believe in the numbers in our budget. We continue to listen but the budget that was passed is the budget that people can rely on.”

Coughlin turned the mic over to Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald.

“I’m very proud of the work product we produced,” Greenwald said.

Caught in a collision within his own inner sanctum about a way forward, Murphy is said not to be taking action today.

“It’s all fluid,” a Murphy source told InsiderNJ.