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Here are some of the tentative budget deal's highlights:

• Timing-wise, the honorables are going to be spending some time down on Jones Street this weekend to pass the budget before the current continuing resolution runs out. Expect them to be meeting at some point on Saturday and maybe on Sunday.

• Remember that deal to take the burden of Medicaid off the counties and give county governments the ability to (following a referndum) raise their own sales taxes a quarter-penny or implement a .4 percent land transfer tax? That's the one that has been fought tooth and nail by the realtors and allied interests?

  It's in this budget deal. You'd call this a win for the House, since the Senate had been balking at the idea of doing the land transfer tax. There will likely be some unhappy Senators tomorrow, especially in swing districts.

• Before the counties get into exercising their new local tax muscle, the sales tax rate throughout most of the state (Charlotte is the odd duck here) will be 6.75 percent. The top-end income tax will drop a quarter percent.

  The extra money form the sales tax - that "temporary tax" that was due to expire but now stays on the books - will be used in part to fund an earned income tax credit.

• The nanotechnology joint venture between UNCG and NCA&T gets funded with $5 million in cash and $53 million in borrowing.

• Over all, the budget borrows $554.1 million for capital projects and pays cash for another $305.7 million. All the borrowing will be done through COPs, Certificates of Participation, which allows the state to borrow without the permission of the voters.

• The Carolina Panthers would be able to sell beer starting at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning for their home games. Thanks to the state's ABC/blue laws, everywhere else in the state has to wait until noon - after church - to get their beer on.

Okay, now to the lottery. Here's an early draft of what I wrote for my story in tomorrow's paper:

The state lottery could pay out more in prizes under a tentative budget agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators late Wednesday evening.

"That was one of the things that people anguished over," Rep. Alma Adams said of the lottery provision. Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, said that the change was pushed by Gov. Mike Easley, who had included the switch in his budget proposal.

Lottery revenues have fallen short of their initial projections and legislators have had to "backfill" from tax dollars to make up for funding shortfalls in the pre-Kindergarten and other programs the state gambling enterprise was supposed to pay for. Allowing for more prize payouts, negotiators said, should bring in more revenue overall and eliminate those shortfalls.

When it was originally passed in 2005, the state lottery act required that at least 35 percent of the games proceeds would go to education. Language agreed to Wednesday says that figure and other percentages outlined in the lottery law are now "guidelines," giving the lottery commission flexibility to make higher payouts.

That's going to draw the ire of a lot of lottery opponents, and I'm thinking the Republicans will howl particularly loudly about it.

Finally, if you need more of a bulletin than that, here's what our friends at the Associate Press wrote about the deal:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ House and Senate negotiators reached tentative agreements late Wednesday on a two-year budget that would make a "temporary" sales tax increase permanent and let counties raise additional taxes for school construction and infrastructure.

The deal, which requires final approval as part of the compromise spending plan presented to the full House and Senate, also would transfer the counties' share of Medicaid expenses to the state in a three-year phase out, House and Senate Democratic leaders said.

The two sides also agreed to give counties, with local voter approval, the right to raise either sales taxes by a quarter of a cent or the land transfer tax from 0.2 percent of the sales price to 0.6 percent.

The transfer tax was a major obstacle in the budget talks that began last month, as the North Carolina Association of Realtors spent nearly $600,000 this year on a public campaign opposing what it called the "NC Home Tax."

Several Senate Democrats have balked at the transfer tax option, but Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand expressed confidence Wednesday night that the proposal, as incorporated in the final budget bill, would pass his chamber.

"I believe that we'll be fine," said Rand, D-Cumberland.

The two sides still have to sign off on some tax credits and other minor changes Thursday. The first of two required votes on the final budget in each chamber could come Friday or Saturday. The bill ultimately will go to the desk of Democratic Gov. Mike Easley for his signature.

Under the tentative agreement, a quarter penny of the sales tax originally set to expire in 2003 would become permanent, said House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson. In a concession to Senate Democrats, the top income tax bracket of 8 percent for the highest wage-earners would expire as scheduled at the end of the year, making the top rate 7.75 percent, Holliman and Rand said.

Both taxes were first approved in 2001 to help pay for a budget shortfall. Portions of both taxes were eliminated last year.

If approved, the deal would mean the sales tax most consumers pay would remain at 6.75 percent. But counties could agree to raise the overall sales tax to 7 percent if an increase is approved in a referendum.

The budget agreement also would create a state version of the federal earned income tax credit, giving cash rebates to some tax filers even if they paid no taxes.

The lawmakers accelerated their pace this week with the knowledge that a stopgap spending measure giving them 31 more days to negotiate past the start of the July 1 fiscal year was about to end. Few Democrats wanted to take the political heat for staying in Raleigh well into August. Passage of a budget usually means the annual legislative session is nearing the end.

Easley also worked on the negotiators to pick up the pace, criticizing them publicly last week while signing an executive order taking $114 million for education programs this fall. Easley also met Wednesday with House leaders, said Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, senior co-chairman of the House Appropriations.

But Easley, who can veto the budget, may not be pleased with one provision that provides $60 million for a signature college scholarship program of his this year but with no guarantee for next year.

Michaux pointed out that legislators also gave Easley $56 million annually for the next two years to expand his More at Four prekindergarten program by another 10,000 seats. And language in the 2005 lottery law was changed to allow for higher prize payouts and hopefully increase ticket sales.

"He ought to recognize that we've done the best we could with what we had," Michaux said.

Under the Medicaid plan, the state would take over the counties' share of Medicaid expenses _ expected to be $520 million this year _ in exchange for taking some tax revenues that local governments have kept over the years.

The Medicaid phase out will help rural counties with a high percentage of residents participating in the government health insurance program. The transfer tax option was pushed by a local government and business coalition as one way to help urban counties dealing with large population growth that wouldn't benefit much from a Medicaid swap.

The tentative agreement also:

_ creates a dedicated cancer research fund that would receive $25 million this year, paid for in part by tobacco settlement money and a higher tax on smokeless tobacco.

_ spends $860 million on capital needs over the next two years, with about $550 million paid through the debt that doesn't require a statewide vote for approval. The projects include $100 million in cash for local water and sewer improvements and $120 million in debt for land conservation.

The AP and all us other scruffy media types will be writing about this tomorrow and through the weekend I'm sure.