State lawmakers won’t vote on a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in New Jersey before the end of the year, the state’s top legislator confirmed to NJ Advance Media on Thursday.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said the bill won’t be on the docket Monday when the state Legislature gathers for its final voting session of 2018.

Sweeney and New Jersey’s other leading lawmaker, state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, were holding out slim hopes of reaching a compromise during a high-stakes policy meeting with Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday.

But while Sweeney said they made some progress on the matter, they still don’t have a deal.

“We really had our first significant conversation today on it," Sweeney said. “I wouldn’t classify anything today as negative. We had a pretty healthy conversation.”

That means the issue — one of the most-watched and most-debated in New Jersey — will stretch into next year, even though Murphy had called on lawmakers to vote by the end of 2018.

Sweeney and Coughlin told reporters after the meeting that much of the conversation with Murphy, a fellow Democrat, was about a proposal to hike the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“The minimum wage piece, I’m optimistic about,” Sweeney said. “Hopefully, we’ll get to the same place about marijuana.”

One of the biggest holdups is how much the state would tax legal pot. Murphy and lawmakers remained far apart on what the rate should be after Thursday’s meeting, according to a legislative source familiar with the talks. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak publicly about the private meeting.

Murphy campaigned on legalizing marijuana, both to improve social justice in the state and raise tax revenue. Sweeney and Coughlin are also in favor of legal pot.

After months of disagreements and debate among lawmakers, a marijuana bill passed out of a joint state Senate and Assembly committee last month.

But Murphy, Sweeney, and Coughlin have not reached an agreement on final details. Both houses of the Democrat-controlled Legislature need to pass the bill and Murphy needs to sign it for the measure to become law.

Progress has slowed by the sometimes strained relationship between the governor and lawmakers. Thursday was the first time Murphy met with Sweeney and Coughlin since October.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Matt Arco contributed to this report.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.