TRENTON – The split between Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-6) cuts jaggedly through the caucus and Greenwald blames Prieto, for being what he calls non-communicative and dogmatic.

A way forward out of this budget impasse if to work a deal around the Horizon restructuring bill, Greenwald told InsiderNJ outside the offices of Governor Chris Christie moments after Christie gave a press conference in response to the budget failing in the assembly.

Prieto has said flatly that he refuses to negotiate on Horizon, and multiple entities back him, including the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, media outlets, and public sector unions. But Christie – the most powerful governor in the country and also the most unpopular governor in 20 years anywhere – wants some version of the Horizon bill, and Greenwald said Prieto needs to respect that process.

“It is bad practice to say ‘I will never,’ because that presumes there is no solution,” the majority leader said. “You cant say ‘I will never but I will next month,’ when it’s here right now.”

Greenwald said it’s Prieto’s responsibility to find something else that may be more attractive to the governor, while lamenting what he says is the speaker’s unwillingness to talk effectively with others in order to build effective political majorities.

“This work is never done by individuals, it is done by coalitions,” Greenwald said. “You start with a list of things; the assembly comes to an understanding about priorities. There are is always a bucket of issues , some stay and some go. You make a determination about these things that are going to stay, but knowing that we’ve got to get a deal.”

Greenwald absolutely denied that he wants to see Prieto carried off the rostrum and the speakership delivered to another.

Can the budget get done with Prieto as speaker, InsiderNJ asked the majority leader.

“Sure,” said Greenwald, who denied that he is party to any effort to remove Prieto.

“I have had zero to do with that, I don’t know where that conversation came from, but the conversation [to remove Prieto] has never taken place,” he said.