NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Lawmakers said Wednesday they have agreed to resolve major differences over Tennessee's $29.6 billion annual spending plan.

Republican House Speaker Kent Williams of Elizabethton said the agreement covers paying for the entire pre-kindergarten program with general fund money and issuing bonds to construct buildings at state colleges and universities.

The House is still speaking with the Republican majority in the Senate about spacing out bonds for bridge projects over two or four years, Williams said.

Senate Republicans, who hold a 19-14 advantage in the upper chamber, previously advanced a budget proposal that rejected any bonding for buildings or bridges, and sought to draw $22 million of pre-K funding from lottery reserves.

Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, emphasized on the Senate floor the previous evening that the Senate GOP plan only sought to cut 0.1 percentage point more than the original 10.2 percent in cuts proposed by Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen.

A balanced budget is the only piece of legislation that the constitution requires lawmakers to pass every year. The new budget year begins July 1.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Mike Turner of Old Hickory said they still got 95 percent of what they wanted.

"It's real close to what we originally proposed, which is what the governor proposed," said Turner.

House Budget Subcommittee Chairman Harry Tindell said the final details on the budget are still being worked out.

"It's just being massaged," said Tindell, D-Knoxville. "And if it's a good package both sides will be thinking they won and claiming victory."

The House and Senate could vote on the budget bill as early as Wednesday evening.

Republicans have a 50-49 edge over Democrats in the House, but there's several subsets within each caucus that could have differing views on the budget.

Rep. Joe McCord, a Maryville Republican who has been involved in negotiations, said it's not certain what the final shape of the spending plan will look like.

"You don't ever have a deal in this place until it's voted on and gone," he said.

McCord laughed when asked whether he could cobble together the 50 votes needed to pass the budget bill out of the House.

"We're at 49 and three-quarters," he joked. "But we're going to round up."

Williams and four other House members have an extra incentive for wrapping up the session soon: They are scheduled to leave Friday afternoon for Taiwan.

But Williams said he'd cancel the trip if the budget isn't passed by then, because "state government comes first."

The trip is a trade mission with legislators from Georgia to learn more about opportunities in the Asian nation. Taiwan's government is paying for most of the trip although lawmakers are to pay some personal expenses.

Reporter Cara Kumari contributed to this story.