They came out of the meeting in fairly good spirits, given the bad blood and ill will, still beset by the knowledge that the two of them can’t occupy the same Statehouse stairwells without someone’s ego getting bruised.

But Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) and Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) did talk today, this morning, in fact, at a legislative leadership meeting broken into two parts. During the first part of the meeting, they considered the budget, and during the second part of the meeting they considered school funding proposals.

The first part of the sit-down, with Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-6) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-36) also in the room, and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-37) and Senator Paul Sarlo (D-36) on conference call – went well and without incident.

The second part got thornier, as Sweeney and Prieto have fought publicly over a school funding solution. But Sweeney in the meeting did offer compromise in order to resolve the impasse.

“He was conciliatory,” a source told InsiderNJ.

They did not reach a conclusion, with Sweeney’s minder Kevin Drennan promising to get harder number from the Office of Legislative Services – maybe as early as today – before they renew talks.