House passes two-year $44.9 billion state budget

The chamber did not vote on the $3 billion in taxes House Democrats are seeking, which led to a Republican floor amendment that sought a requirement for budgets to be based on revenues that aren't tied to tax increases not yet passed.

Democrats have already said that they won't likely take a floor vote in that chamber on any of the tax bills that pay for it before completing negotiations with Senate Republicans, who passed their own $43 billion two-year budget plan last week.

The Senate proposal puts an additional $1.8 billion of state dollars toward education over the next two years, but the net amount estimated to be received by schools is much lower — about $871 million — because of the phasing out of the local district levies that are replaced by the statewide property tax they propose.

Because the House doesn't completely phase out local levies, the net change for the total increase in school funding over the next two years under the House plan is $2.2 billion — the $1.9 billion in state money under the budget passed Friday, plus more than $362 million expected from the local property tax levies, according to a comparison prepared by the state Office of Financial Management.