There are more than 50,000 employees in state government, including about 45,000 unionized workers.

Malloy has called the Democratic-controlled General Assembly back to Hartford for a special session on the final day of the fiscal year. He is pushing ahead with plans to balance the new two-year, $40.1 billion budget, even though union leaders are trying to find a way to prevent the layoffs from occurring. The budget, which takes effect on Friday, is now in deficit by $1.6 billion because state employees defeated the tentative labor agreement.

Malloy's budget chief, Benjamin Barnes, said it will cost the state about $1.6 million or 29 jobs for each day the state does not have a balanced budget in place.

The legislation being offered to the General Assembly for consideration on Thursday does give the union leaders, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, until Aug. 31 to somehow come up with a way to ultimately ratify the labor agreement. Given the various layoff notification requirements and employees' rights to bump less senior employees, many workers won't actually lose their jobs until September.

"They haven't taken definitive action. What they've done is tabled it. And if they can figure out a way through their internal process to ratify that agreement, that's certainly something he's open to," Occhiogrosso said, referring to the governor.

It remains unclear whether Malloy's plan will clear the legislature. It outlines savings goals for individual state agencies and a suggested number of layoffs needed to help appointed commissioners to reach those goals. Some commissioners might choose to lay off more people while others could find cuts elsewhere in their respective budgets.

While Democratic members of the Senate have already privately discussed Malloy's plan and appear somewhat open to it, Democrats in the House of Representatives have not yet discussed the proposal. They've scheduled a closed-door caucus meeting for Thursday morning. House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, has been hesitant about expanding Malloy's current budget-cutting authority from five percent of any appropriation to 10 percent. Also, many of the cuts that Malloy's administration is sure to make will include unpopular spending reductions that Democrats have opposed in past budgets.

Also, the House and Senate Republican leaders oppose allowing Malloy to balance the budget, arguing that it's the legislature's responsibility even though the GOP supported expanding the budget-cutting powers for previous Republican governors.

"In this particular case, we're talking about sweeping rescission powers that affect all branches of government," said House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk. "The governor is saying 'trust me as governor,' and yet he's admitting that he's basically going to leave it up to his commissioners to make these cuts wherever they see fit. Well, with all due respect, when you're talking about $1.6 billion, that is not the job of appointed commissioners. That's a job of a legislature and the executive branch."

Some lawmakers could also oppose Malloy's proposal to allow him to reduce total state aid to cities and towns, something that he's currently forbidden from imposing. The bill, however, exempts the Education Cost Sharing Grant, the largest state grant for public education. It calls for reducing state aid by $54.4 million in each of the two years.

If the legislature does not approve Malloy's plan on Thursday, the governor still has the ability to lay off the workers and make spending reductions, using his five percent authority. But Benjamin Barnes, the governor's budget chief, said that won't be enough to cover the gap in the plan, which already raises taxes by $1.4 billion in the first year and $1.2 billion in the second. Malloy has said he does not want to raise taxes further.

There were sporadic reports of layoff notices being issued on Wednesday. Occhiogrosso said about 200 workers at Bergin Correctional Institution in Storrs, which has been targeted by Malloy for closure, could receive their notices on Thursday.