Hartford - State union leaders and Republican lawmakers found themselves in partial agreement Tuesday on the tentative labor deal between the unions and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration.

Both said it was good for the workers. In boosting the deal, unions hoped to encourage their members to ratify its wage, pension and benefits givebacks that total $1.6 billion over two years.

But for the GOP, the praise was entirely backhanded.

"Maximum gain, minimal pain," is how a cheeky Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk, the House minority leader, described the deal. "My hat's off to the union negotiators."

"It's a great deal for the state employees. It's not a great deal for the people of Connecticut," said Senate Minority Leader John McKinney of Fairfield.

The fine print was made public Tuesday for the first time since the unions and the administration reached an agreement Friday after more than two months of negotiations.

The first of 15 state unions representing roughly 45,000 members are expected to begin voting on the agreement within days.

The deal would help close a $2 billion gap in Malloy's two-year budget by lowering labor costs by $700 million in the fiscal year starting July 1 and $900 million in the next year. The remaining $400 million hole in the budget would be closed through a mix of new cuts and surplus revenue, with a greater emphasis on cuts, state officials said.

But Republicans said the Democratic governor caved in too easily to the unions, considering that his budget would raise taxes by $1.4 billion its first year, the largest increase in two decades. Cafero accused the administration of "choreography," or using public relations tactics such as layoff notices - since rescinded - so the governor would appear to be getting tough.

Republicans specifically criticized Malloy's administration for agreeing to the following:

• A four-year no-layoff pledge in exchange for a two-year wage freeze.

• The five-year extension of the 20-year labor contract for pension and retiree health benefits signed in 1997 by then-Gov. John G. Rowland.

• Not requiring furlough days.

• Not moving workers away from pension plans and toward 401(k)-type defined-contribution retirement plans.

Union and administration representatives called the agreement tough but fair. The full package is projected to save the state $21.5 billion over 20 years.

"I think maybe some of the Republicans were hoping that it would be all about pain and nothing about protecting working families … and that's not what happened," said Dan Livingston, chief negotiator for the union coalition. "We found good common ground for both sides."

The administration's chief negotiator, Mark Ojakian, agreed with that assessment.

"I think the state employees have given back a significant amount in this agreement," he said. "Is it everything that we had hoped for? No. But is it a fair compromise? Absolutely."

Others noted that the deal's two-year wage freeze would follow a one-year freeze that was part of a 2009 concession agreement with the previous governor.

"This is not a win-win or lose-lose," said Patricia Peterson, president of the CSEA SEIU Local 2001. "This is about what we all can agree to live with."

Republicans also questioned whether the anticipated cost-savings are realistic numbers.

Cafero scoffed at several projections in the document, including $90 million in annual savings from "implementing savings ideas proposed by employees" - he called it a suggestion box - as well $40 million in savings via a cost containment committee. He called for a nonpartisan audit of the agreement's accounting.

"It does not add up to me," Cafero said.

Matt O'Connor, a spokesman for the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, defended the deal and said lawmakers should recognize the sacrifices that it asks of workers. O'Connor said the unions "held the line" on pension benefits and retiree health care when the administration's negotiators tried to reduce them.

"Both sides felt like they had to give up a lot to accomplish this," O'Connor said. "Who can be against retirees in their golden years being able to support themselves?"

Neither the union nor the administration has been willing to describe in detail the highs and lows of the 10-week negotiations. Ojakian did offer an overall assessment: "I would summarize the talks as being difficult in terms of the time and effort to come to a resolution. But through the whole process, they were very respectful - there was no yelling, there was no screaming."

Ojakian continued: "I think the fact that I have known these unions leaders and worked with them on a lot of progressive civil rights struggles over the years, I think made it easier for me to be trusted by them."

Fourteen of the 15 unions need to vote in favor of the pensions and benefits part of the agreement for it to take effect, in addition to the approval of 80 percent of all voting members.

Each of the unions' 34 bargaining units must then vote to accept the wages portion.

Livingston, the union negotiator, said he does not expect all 34 bargaining units to have finished by May 31, Malloy's deadline for submitting a concessions agreement and additional budget cuts to the legislature.

However, state officials said the agreement that Malloy submits isn't required to be ratified at that point in time.

j.reindl@theday.com

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEAL:

Here are some of the bigger savings that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says he hopes to achieve during the next two years by the proposed agreement between state employees and his administration. Details are available on www.theday.com.

Pension changes

Change COLA for retirees: $66.8 million.

Raise retirement age: $44 million (rises to age 63 from 60 for non-hazardous-duty employees with 25 years of service, and 65 from 62 for employees with 10 years of service).

Health care changes

Require regular checkups, etc., as a preventative for expensive illnesses: $205 million.

Cost-containment initiatives: $75 million.

Increased drug co-pays: $40.4 million (the ER co-pays rise to $35 from $0, for example).

Other changes

Two-year wage freeze: $448 million (including a freeze on contractual step increases).

Longevity payments: $7 million (eliminates for new hires the practice of twice yearly longevity payments, and cancels the October payment for just this year for current workers).

"Suggestion box" proposals: $180 million (union officials say there are about 370 ideas, including the replacement of Microsoft Office products with free, open-source software).

Anticipates $65 million in savings by not filling about 1,000 positions that will be vacated by retirements.

Pay raises

Employees receive a 3 percent pay raise in fiscal years 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Source: State Office of Policy and Management and unions officials