He said his administration has "done everything in our power to reach agreements with the negotiating team" that would prevent layoffs for four years. The approximate 45,000 unionized state employees are reviewing the tentative agreement. Some have posted comments on union websites, criticizing the deal and urging colleagues to vote no.

The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, the group of union leaders that negotiated the tentative agreement with Malloy's administration, has scheduled an informational meeting for unionized state workers from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Gov. William A. O'Neill Armory in Hartford to explain the proposed changes to the health and retirement benefits.

Matt O'Connor, a SEBAC spokesman, said the governor's comments aren't surprising.

"His hands are really kind of tied if he gets to July 1, and there's no actual budget, there's a budget with this big hole in it," O'Connor said.

Some state employees are particularly concerned about the Health Enhancement Program, an optional, so-called value-based health and dental plan that's included in the tentative concessions agreement. It attempts to encourage workers to take better care of themselves and ultimately avoid costly medical problems down the road. There has been speculation that the program is really Sustinet, a legislative effort to enact universal health care.

Both Malloy and the state employee unions tried to discount that rumor.

In a statement posted Thursday on the bargaining coalition's website, spokesman Larry Dorman said, "The politicians and anti-worker forces who want to tear down public employees and take away their benefits" are seizing on the fears of state employees by using the Susinet legislation "as their chief tool of misinformation and fear-mongering."

"To suggest that the Sustinet legislation, which is the latest version of the fight for universal health care, is somehow connected to the SEBAC 2011 tentative agreement is simply a lie," Dorman wrote. "Let us say it clearly once again: Sustinet is not part of SEBAC 2011 in any way, shape or form."

Malloy also reiterated Thursday that he will not agree to an early retirement initiative. Some workers have suggested that an offer might be made if members defeat the agreement and send negotiators back to the table.

"I've seen the comments. I've made it clear. I made it clear as a candidate. I made it clear since I've become governor," Malloy said. "I'm not going to pay people to retire and further burden a pension system which, as of the last Pew analysis, was 42 percent funded. We're not going to do it."

O'Connor said union members are now not expected to finish voting on the tentative agreement until June 24. The General Assembly adjourns June 8.

Thirteen of 15 unions and 80 percent of voting union members need to approve the health and pension benefit changes, while each of the 34 bargaining units needs to approve wage changes to their contracts.

O'Connor said union leaders remain optimistic that workers will ratify the deal. While the tentative agreement calls for a two-year wage freeze followed by three years of 3 percent increases and various retirement changes, there are also four years of job protection, continuation of the current health care plan and continuation of a pension and retiree health benefits.

"At the end of the day, we believe members will recognize this agreement is not just fair, it puts them certainly in a better position to get through this lagging economy we're in," he said.