TALLAHASSEE -- The full House and Senate are scheduled Friday to approve their budget cut plans that raise traffic fines, cut virtually every type of program and nearly drain the state's savings account.

But there's a key difference between the chambers' proposals: The House proposal is $500 million larger than the Senate's, largely because the House raids more special savings and spending accounts.

The Senate plugs about $2.3 billion of the budget deficit -- about $100 million shy of the likely hole. The House cuts and raids enough to plug a $2.8 billion hole -- about $400 million more than the likely budget deficit.

Some key differences:

• The state Transportation Trust Fund. The House takes $200 million from the fund. The Senate takes nothing.

• The Budget Stabilization Fund. The House plan takes $600 million, leaving just $72 million in this savings account of last resort. The Senate plan would take just $200million.

• The Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund. The Senate calls for a $700 million transfer from the fund, which has just $1.1 billion left in it to fund services for children and seniors.

The House plan would take $400 million from the Chiles fund, but could take $600 million more to reimburse the budget stabilization fund. Both chambers seek to transfer the Chiles money in June and would reimburse the fund with federal bailout money expected from Congress.

The differences will be worked out in weekend conferences so that legislators can then vote on identical budget plans next week. The current budget: $66.3 billion.

Much of Friday's debate in both chambers will swirl around the Chiles fund, which was named after the state's last Democratic governor and was established under Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. Legislators will likely spend a large amount of time debating a Republican plan that would call for school employee pay cuts in school districts where reserves are depleted.

Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com.

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