House and Senate negotiators reached tentative agreement yesterday on the outlines of a $77 billion state budget that would authorize pay increases for public employees, including schoolteachers, and encourage colleges to limit tuition increases.

Details were still to be worked out, and negotiators said it probably would be Thursday morning before the budget bill could be presented to legislators for their perusal.

The negotiators reached the accord last evening with no handshakes, no signatures and little fanfare.

"You have persuaded us to go to your policy on the compensation package and on the total pre-K package," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Lacey E. Putney, I-Bedford, told Senate conferees.

Senate negotiators nodded, and the conferees went back to work in smaller groups.

Lawmakers were scheduled to adjourn Saturday but voted to extend the session three days to hammer out a budget. The 140 legislators, in their fourth overtime session in five years, had hoped a budget bill would be ready today, when lawmakers are scheduled to return to Richmond.

However, after meeting Sunday and yesterday, the 12 budget negotiators -- six from the House and six from the Senate -- said a full agreement likely would not be reached until today and that printing and proofreading the budget would take another day.

Once the General Assembly approves the budget bill, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will still have a chance to amend it at the reconvened session that will be held next month.

In addition to unresolved matters in the budget bill, the two chambers still differ over the scope and projects in a proposed $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion capital-outlay bond issue that also likely will be presented to legislators Thursday morning. The bond package would fund building projects at colleges and universities, mental-health facilities, state parks and government office buildings.

After a hard day of generally fruitless negotiations Sunday, the 12 negotiators jump-started the talks yesterday by splitting many of the differences that had separated them.

But as of last night, some differences still had not been bridged, including details of spending on public safety. For example, the House and the Senate still had not decided on whether to provide state funding to drug courts. The House wants to eliminate the funding; the Senate wants to continue the courts.

With the spending parameters generally set, the House conferees agreed to take an additional $70 million from Virginia's $1.2 billion "rainy-day fund" -- raising the state's withdrawal to nearly $300 million -- to help balance the budget for the year that ends June 30.

The House initially had been opposed to dipping into the fund, but as the economic downturn worsened, delegates agreed to take $225 million from the fund. Kaine and the Senate wanted to withdraw $423 million.

The negotiators actually agreed on two budget bills -- one completing this budget year, which ends June 30, and a second to govern state spending from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2010.

Even with the economic downturn, the proposed two year budget of about $77 billion is $3 billion more than the budget for 2006-08.

The negotiators, generally in good humor, presented offers and counteroffers throughout the day, moving from the ninth floor, where the House Appropriations Committee has its offices, to the 10th floor, where the Senate Finance Committee meets.

The conferees gave tentative approval to a reduction in aid to local governments of $50 million per year and $17.5 million per year in reductions at state agencies, excluding higher education. This is similar to what Kaine proposed when the legislators came to Richmond in January.

The budget includes no money for nonstate agencies, generally historical and cultural attractions, which received $5.7 million in state aid in the existing budget. Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6645 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.