Lawmakers were back in Albany, trying yet again to reach consensus on a budget now more than six weeks late. And while Governor Paterson's furlough plan for state workers was put on hold by a court last week, there is talk that he could now be planning layoffs. Our Erin Billups has more.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

"It's not a decision I made, it's more speculation," said Governor David Paterson.

State employee unions, though, are prepared if the Governor does choose to put their jobs on the chopping block and say a "no layoff" agreement signed by the Paterson Administration last June is ironclad.

"It has already been tested in court and has been found to be valid. The way they keep bringing up this issue. We're a little bit surprised by it because they already know that this is legally binding," said CSEA Spokesman Stephen Madarasz.

Something Paterson denies, leaving the door open to layoffs in the future.

"When there are intervening events that are out of the contemplation of the parties such as this recession that could be a way to theoretically lay people off," said Paterson.

Lawmakers say they won't stand in Paterson's way.

"We need the $250 million in workforce savings. The Governor controls the state workforce and he can do it in any appropriate way under the law in order to make the savings that's part of his fiscal plan," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

The unions, meanwhile, say Paterson's attack on the state workforce is a simply a distraction.

"This is really a sideshow to the main attraction of the Governor's inability to work with the legislature to come to a meaningful budget for all of the people of New York," said Madarasz.

About that budget deal, Speaker Silver says he met with the Governor and Senate leader and claims they're getting closer. Though that is what they've been saying for the past six weeks.