House and Senate leaders are not showing signs of meeting their July 1 deadline to make adjustments to the state's two-year budget. They're still deadlocked over differences in their spending plans.
Senate leaders call the House's budget plans unbalanced and unsustainable. They say a five percent pay raise for teachers is not enough. Senators are offering 11 percent by cutting back on teacher assistants.
Senators also have a problem with the House's Medicaid estimates. They say that House leaders need to set aside more money in the health care program for low-income people to account for possible overruns.
But the House seems pretty confident in their proposals. In a rare vote, they unanimously passed their scaled-down spending plan.
The two chambers also don't see eye-to-eye on some non-budget issues, namely Common Core. The House wants to completely scrap the education standards for students, while the Senate would want to at least consider keeping parts of it.
Lawmakers are off today, but it's likely that next week will be busy. On top of all the budget talks, they still have Common Core on their plate. They can't come to an agreement on whether or not to completely replace the education standards.
