But his critics maintain that the state should not be reneging on its financial commitment to early-childhood programs just because the Federal Government is now providing money for the same purpose.

City officials complain with reason that the state, after bungling deinstitutionalization, has reneged on its obligation to provide long-term care.

The comparison is unfair, and the notion that the state would renege on its statutory obligation to policyholders is inappropriate and well outside the realm of reality.

The city charges that the state has reneged on an agreement to take prisoners who belong to it.

In 2001, in the face of budget constraints, the state reneged on its pledge to conduct these periodic surveys; no gambling impact study has been carried out in Connecticut since 1996.

I believe the state has not reneged on its promise," Mrs. Keane said, "but we must check the conditions they set.

The county maintains that the state has reneged on a promise to reimburse counties for almost 70 percent of some of the programs' costs, paying instead 50 to 60 percent.

Aides to Mayor Giuliani said yesterday that the city and the state had agreed to chip in $11 million each to help pay for the proposed expansion but that the state had recently reneged on its verbal commitment.

Mr. Kelso said the state had not reneged on that agreement.

Still, it was the first effort in some time to deal with a problem that has long been ignored and made worse since the state reneged, in 1993, on its obligation to fully help many school districts with their debt-service burden.