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It's crunch time in Nashville.

Competing visions for the 2009-2010 state budget could force the legislature into overtime if an agreement to resolve major differences over Tennessee's $29.6 billion annual spending plan doesn't hold.

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. 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.

"The last few days are always interesting," said state Sen. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville. "It's a fluid situation. One of my colleagues that I talked with this morning about our final week said it's like taking one step forward and two steps back. There have been some intense discussions and various ideas floated. Discussions not only between the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate but between the Senate and the House, trying to see if we can get everybody on the same page to adopt the same budget in both chambers and avoid a conference committee. That is something we'd like to avoid because that is something that would only drag things out. It would be in the best interests of the state for the two chambers to come together and try to adopt the same budget."

Taiwan trade mission

State Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, is scheduled to accompany Speaker Williams to Taiwan on a trade mission starting Friday. Williams has said that he will cancel the trip if the budget issues aren't resolved. McCord, who has been in on the 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.

State Rep. Robert Ramsey, R-Maryville, said the House and the Senate have very different views of the budget.

"The governor had made significant cuts," Ramsey said. "The Senate had increased the reduction of some budget items. The House leadership has drawn up a guidelines for replacing a few of those cuts and addressing some of the expenditures in the nature of paying cash instead of indebting the state in the future."

Overbey said the Senate doesn't want history to repeat itself.

"Our goal has been to do the best job we can in matching recurring revenues and recurring expenses," Overbey said. "That is a difficult situation that the state got itself into back in 1999 and 2000 and it took a while to dig our way out of that. That's been the overall goal of the Senate Republicans in the budget. What we've put forward. While not a perfect document by any means, did a better job of matching recurring revenue and recurring expenses."

Just when the budget will be approved is a good question, Ramsey said.

"I have had estimations from this week till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday of next week," he said. "There have been some less optimistic projections of two weeks from now. The governor is apparently out of the state. If there is further consideration of this budget, then we may have to wait until he gets back."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.