Tennessee lawmakers are expected to finally come to grips with a budget when they meet Wednesday. A proposal in the House has received support of both Democrats and Republicans.

The House Budget Subcommittee approved a new budget Tuesday night that Finance Chair Craig Fitzhugh says will be supported by representatives of both parties.

“As I say, it’s a no-new-taxes budget. It protects those things that we want to protect, and it leaves us a substantial reserve, coming out of this recession.”

Although the House budget dips deeper in the state’s reserves than Governor Bredesen’s proposal, it boosts reserves by counting money that won’t actually be spent in the next fiscal year as reserve funds.

The bipartisan House budget continues to fund conservation land acquisition and keeps a controversial fish hatchery in the district of House Speaker Kent Williams. The hatchery is expected to be a stumbling block when the Senate encounters the House budget as early as Wednesday.

After the next session, the Senate is working free, having used up all their paid days. The state budget must be passed by June 30th.

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Explaining how the House proposal boosts reserves, Fitzhugh says the usual state budget has a pocket of money that is intended for certain programs that extend for two years. The funds are real, and are not intended to be spent during the fiscal year, but don’t show up in the reserve funds.

Fitzhugh’s House budget recognizes those funds as a “core reserve,” money that could be re-appropriated to emergency uses during 2010-11 if necessary.

The various bills that must be passed in order for the state to have a 2010-11 budget include:

The appropriations bill, the “check-writing” part of the budget.

The “omnibus bill”. This bill makes changes throughout Tennessee law to be sure that all the parts of the budget comply with all previous laws.

The technical corrections bill. In theory, this bill fine-tunes tax law by closing loopholes. In reality, it often imposes new taxes, although this year all the “revenue enhancements” have been amended out.

The bond bill, which authorizes the state to borrow money for capital improvements.