Members of the House Rules Committee, led by Rep. Blaine Finch, rear, meet in a hallway behind the House chamber Thursday to consider whether a budget amendment by Rep. Barbara Ballard of Lawrence to exempt university campuses from having to allow concealed carry firearms starting July 1 was in order. Ballard's amendment was ruled out of order and was not considered by the full House.

Topeka ? House and Senate budget negotiators met late into the night Thursday and planned to resume Friday morning in hopes of striking a deal on a two-year spending plan for state government, which would enable them to end what is now the second-longest legislative session in state history.

The talks began Thursday evening, shortly after the House passed its own version of a two-year budget. The Senate had passed its bill Sunday.

The House bill calls for spending just under $6.5 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, which is about $24 million more than the Senate proposed.

For the following fiscal year that begins July 1, 2018, the House bill calls for spending $6.3 billion, which is $204 million less than the Senate’s plan.

In early talks both sides agreed to add $500,000 to the Legislature’s own budget in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, so it can pay the additional cost of the extended session, which goes into its 112th day Friday.

Both bills include a partial restoration of the more than 5 percent cut that the University of Kansas and Kansas State University took this year in the face of revenue shortfalls. Those cuts were disproportionately higher than cuts imposed on the other Regents universities, so the partial restoration brings KU’s and K-State’s cuts down to 4 percent, which was the average of all the university cuts.

Neither the House nor the Senate bill would have been possible without the additional $1.2 billion in revenue the state will realize from higher income taxes contained in a bill the House and Senate pushed through Tuesday by overriding Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto.

The larger total figure for the Senate’s bill is mainly due to technical wording about payments in the second year into the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System. In fact, both chambers are proposing to withhold one quarterly payment of about $194 million into the system and pay that back over a 20-year period.

The Senate bill also includes a 2-percent cost of living raise for state employees, which was not included in the House plan. Instead, the House is offering some targeted pay raises for non-judicial court employees and correctional officers.

The House plan also provides for the demolition and reconstruction of a portion of the Lansing Correctional Facility, something the Senate did not consider.

Both bills add significant new funding for Osawatomie State Hospital to add 20 more psychiatric beds to that facility.

And both bills call for an increase in privilege fees that health maintenance organizations pay to do business in Kansas. Money generated by that increase would restore the 4 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.

Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, tried unsuccessfully to add an amendment that would extend for another two years an exemption for college and university campuses to comply with the upcoming mandate that they allow people to carry concealed weapons in school buildings.

That amendment was ruled out of order because it did not deal directly with appropriations.

Ballard said afterwards that she was disappointed that she couldn’t get the amendment onto the bill because the budget bill was probably the last opportunity to do it this year.

Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, was successful adding an amendment that establishes in statute the entrance fees for Constitution Hall in Lecompton, the place where a pro-slavery constitution was written in 1857 but was eventually rejected by Congress.

Sloan said a recent increase in entrance fees that the Kansas State Historical Society ordered has led to a drop in visitorship at the historic site.

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, added an identical amendment in the Senate budget plan.