House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed on a draft for a new two-year budget of more than $77 billion, setting up a final vote Thursday.

The two sides ended days of haggling over differing public safety priorities, much of it over funding to crack down on Internet sexual predators.

It also came four days after the General Assembly's Saturday adjournment deadline, the fifth time since 2001 that budget disputes have forced legislators into overtime.

The final details were resolved around noon.

The new budget, tempered by a projected $2-billion revenue shortfall through mid-2010, contains some cuts both to state operations and state support for local government, particularly law enforcement.

It boosts funding for required updates to core public school curriculum to roughly $11 billion for the two years.