It seems like it was just yesterday that the Connecticut General Assembly nearly passed a bill to protect transportation funds via a constitutional lockbox.

But that was actually five months ago.

What actually happened yesterday, the last day of the 2016 legislative session, was that there was no vote on the lockbox in either chamber. Lawmakers couldn’t even pass a budget — which was the main focus of the entire session.

Governor Malloy renewed his call for a lockbox — seen as a prerequisite for any new transportation revenue such as highway tolls — at the outset of the 2016 session, and the measure made it through the Transportation Committee. But that’s the farthest it got, despite support from a broad coalition of business, labor and transportation groups. The measure lacked support from Republicans who felt the language wasn’t strong enough to protect revenue from being diverted before being deposited into the Special Transportation Fund. CT News Junkie reports:

“When you have a lockbox that looks great in the front and has a big hole in the back or has a hole in the front and looks good from the back or depending on what angle you get it, from the side — that’s not a lockbox,” [House Minority Leader Themis] Klarides said Thursday. “And that’s misleading the state of Connecticut.”

Republican lawmakers who voted against the lockbox in December expressed concern that the resolution failed to define the source of revenue coming into the lockbox, which could allow for diversions before the money gets to the fund.

Malloy felt the new language should satisfy their concerns, but concerns remained when the bill was approved by the Transportation Committee in March. It was placed on the House calendar in March and remained there untouched for the remainder of the legislative session, which ended Wednesday.

Lawmakers are expected to return next week for a special session to adopt the budget, but a transportation lockbox was not included in the call to special session.