Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters Wednesday his caucus is taking its time to digest the Senate’s budget proposal but the Rochester Republican raised doubts about borrowing $712 million for roads.

The Senate plan to borrow that amount goes above the $500 million that Gov. Scott Walker initially proposed — a figure Assembly Republicans objected to early on.

And a number “significantly north” of $500 million “doesn’t make any sense,” Vos told reporters after his weekly meeting with Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Vos said the meeting didn’t go into “great depth about specifics” and that Republicans are “just trying to get to the point of negotiating.”

Vos said his chamber will “continue to digest” the Senate’s budget proposal and try to find common ground, noting Assembly Republicans laid out their positions months ago. The budget is now 19 days late.

“[Senate Republicans] now have a better idea of where they are,” Vos said. “We want to take the time to absorb all that.”

Myranda Tanck, a Fitzgerald spokeswoman, said after Wednesday’s meeting that Fitzgerald wants to “give members of the Assembly adequate time to review that document and respond and are hopeful that the Joint Finance Committee can then resume their work.”

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