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Updated 10:30 a.m., 4/30/2015

A panel of House and Senate lawmakers reached an agreement Tuesday on the final draft of the overall state budget, but some big spending questions will be settled later this week.

The conference committee unanimously approved a budget that is $4.3 million over Gov. David Ige’s initial request for fiscal 2016, which starts July 1, and $53 million under his request for fiscal 2017.

The lead negotiators on  — House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke and Senate Ways and Means Chair Jill Tokuda — said they worked with the state departments to take care of some of their additional needs for next year. But they want to continue those discussions and see what kind of progress is made before setting more money aside for the second year of the biennium.

Senate Ways and Means Chair Jill Tokuda, left, and House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke talk to reporters after passing a final draft of the overall state budget Tuesday.

Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat

The conference draft of the state budget bill continues to rely on an $844 million carryover balance from 2013. But the state has rapidly drained that surplus and is working to get out of deficit-spending mode.

Update Last year, Paul Harleman, the Senate Minority Research budget director, projected a worst-case scenario of a $1 billion deficit by 2019 if spending cuts weren’t made or taxes weren’t increased.

The situation has improved since then and as of now the state is projected to be out of a deficit position by fiscal year 2018. However, that financial plan doesn’t account for all the additional collective bargaining costs for contracts expiring June 30, 2016.

“One of the things that both the House and the Senate wanted to make sure of is that we really try to quickly reduce our deficit spending,” Tokuda said after Tuesday’s meeting.

“We would have loved to have said yes to every single request that came before us; we just can’t do that,” she said. “So in the next few days we will be looking at what can we afford to do with those additional bills before us.”

The conference committee also approved the budgets for grants-in-aid and capital improvement projects.

Rep. Ty Cullen took the lead on whittling down GIA applications for the House and Sen. Ron Kouchi and Rep. Kyle Yamashita worked on the CIP budget. Details are to be posted on the soon.

Some of the GIA projects approved include $450,000 to design and construct a new Diamond Head Theatre; $1 million for Goodwill Industries of Hawaii to renovate its Honolulu Career and Learning Center; $1.5 million for Ola Ka Ilima Arts Center to plan, design and construct an 84-unit affordable working-force housing development in Kakaako; $2 million for the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii to plan, design, acquire land and build a program development center; and $1.5 million for the Pacific American Foundation Hawaii to plan, design and build a new facility for education, research and employment programs in Kaneohe.

The full House and Senate is expected to vote on the more than $26 billion two-year budget next week.

There are numerous bills with huge fiscal implications that lawmakers are working to finalize — or kill — by Friday’s deadline.

Lawmakers are set to meet Wednesday afternoon to continue discussing plans for the , a 25-story office building in downtown Honolulu. The price tag is estimated at $90 million, but supporters say it’d be a third of the cost of designing and constructing a new building to house government offices.

Additional spending requests continue to arrive at the Legislature’s doorstep.

Luke said one of the reasons the committee took “kind of a conservative approach” to the budget this session was to accommodate collective bargaining agreements that have come in recently.

The governor submitted requests last week to fund  for the firefighters union;  for two United Public Workers bargaining units; and over for the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

Highlights of the operating and CIP budgets, as compiled by House staff, include:

Operating Highlights

• $50 million, in each year, for the Rental Housing Trust Fund
• $21 million in operating funds for the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation
• $2.4 million FY16 and $5 million FY17 for the Department of Education weighted student formula
• $1.5 million FY16 for the Housing First Program
• $7.5 million, in each year, for University of Hawaii system wide operating expenses and costs associated with the Violence Against Women Act and Title IX
• $500,000 FY16 for the viability study of a Central Oahu land swap
• $1 million, in each year, for the A+ Afterschool Program
• $3.16 million FY16 and $2.74 FY17 for costs associated with Halawa Correctional Facility repairs and improvement
• $250,000 FY16 for the prevention and treatment against the invasive macadamia felted coccid
• $2.41 million FY16 in general and federal funds for the Veteran’s Cemetery
• $647,400 FY16 and $319,048 FY17 for the new Nanakuli Public Library
• $9.63 million in each year, for the Department of Hawaiian Homelands administrative and operating expenses
• $1.5 million, in each year, for albizia eradication and control along public state highways

CIP Highlights

• A total of $165.8 million FY16 and $70 million FY17 in lump sum funds to the Department of Education for building conditioning and program support
• $44.43 million for the University of Hawaii system capital improvements program
• $10 million FY16 for the University of Hawaii Community Colleges capital improvements program
• $40 million FY16 for the Rental Housing Trust Fund
• $4.15 million, in each year, in lump sum funds for public housing improvements and renovations
• A total of $62.8 million FY17 for a veterans long-term care facility
• $1.4 million FY16 and $500,000 FY17 for statewide health, safety, code, and other requirements at the Department of Agriculture
• $12 million, in each year, in lump sum funds for the maintenance of existing state facilities
• $20 million FY16 and $12 million FY17 in lump sum funds for the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation
• $3 million, in each year, for rockfall and flood mitigation
• $1 million, in each year, for the Department of Land and Natural Resources watershed initiative
• $4 million FY16 for the Department of Land and Natural Resources Maui office annex building
• $8.5 million FY16 and $12.5 million FY17 in lump sum funds for the Department of Public Safety
• $129.14 million FY16 (revenue bonds) and $86.811 million FY17 (special funds) for rental car facility improvements statewide
• $250 million FY16 (revenue bonds) for Kapalama Military Reservation improvements at Honolulu Harbor
• A total of $30 million, in each year, for the Department of Transportation to perform major pavement improvements statewide