Word out of Albany is that state budget talks are crawling closer to completion in record snail’s pace, with some good but an awful lot of bad and ugly.

It may get uglier still: Even the “good” items could wind up holding poison pills that turn progress into regress.

At this point, we mainly hope the talks keep dragging on: The more time they spend on the budget, the less further damage legislators can inflict before the session ends on June 8.