INDIANAPOLIS -- Days of closed-door talks at the Statehouse have apparently led nowhere as the legislative deadline approaches on Sunday.

Negotiations over a bill to give Indiana businesses a break on their unemployment taxes appeared to have fallen apart on Friday, and that may drag down school funding and several other critical measures, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

Analysis: Capitol WatchBlog: Statehouse Train Wreck

Reporters were told repeatedly on Friday that a deal was imminent on the bill to delay the scheduled unemployment tax increase on Indiana businesses by one year. But my mid-afternoon, insiders said the negotiations had broken down.

No one would say who rejected the supposed compromise, House Democrats or Senate Republicans. Senate Republican leader David Long would only say that the ball is in House Speaker Pat Bauer's court.

"I think there are a lot of rumors running around right now," said Long, R-Ft. Wayne. "In the end, I think a lot of this remains in the speaker's hands, and it's his decision on how he wants to proceed."

Bauer came the closest to giving an inside look at the talks by telling reporters that Republicans have doubled their demands from a one-year delay in the tax hike to a two-year delay.

"The agreement we had, or thought we had, was expanded from a $500 million, one-year delay, to a $1 billion, two-year delay," said Bauer, D-South Bend. "Now that kind of blow out, if you will, is pretty hard to fix."

Bauer said Democrats would have agreed to the $500 million delay, even at a time when schools are losing that much, but not a $1 billion delay.

If more progress isn't made soon, Bauer has hinted that Democrats may just go home Friday night, leaving other issues like the school funding bill dead.

Bauer appealed to Republicans to pass that on its own, but they won't do that until they get the unemployment tax break for business.

Fry's Whereabouts

Another hot topic at the Statehouse on Friday was the whereabouts of Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka.

Various sources have described Fry as visiting a sick relative in Florida, watching spring training in Florida, or both.

That, along with Rep. Dennie Oxley Sr.'s session-long illness, have left Democrats one short of a majority to pass bills.

When Cox asked Bauer if he knew where Fry was, he hesitated, and then just said, "No."

If a bipartisan compromise is worked out, Fry's vote won't be needed.

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