Longtime budget gurus prepare for battle

As the budget negotiations heat up this summer, attention invariably will
turn to the Big Five, the much-ballyhooed set of meetings between the
governor and the four legislative leaders. But as five of the state’s top
elected officials huddle in a gubernatorial conference room, Craig Cornett
will be seated just outside in the hallway.

It will be Cornett’s sixth year in that hall. As Assembly Speaker Fabian
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