While lawmakers are spending their Friday night at the Statehouse, despite working out a budget agreement earlier this week, last-minute negotiations stalled the process, and the Office of Legislative Services is preparing a draft spending plan for committees to vote on tonight, then hold floor votes on Monday.

The outcome of that vote isn't a question.

It's roughly a $58 billion budget that's expected to pass.

But both the Governor's Office and Legislature are running up against the clock.

Senior Correspondent Brenda Flanagan has the latest as part of our Under the Dome series.

If you notice, sometimes if you wait to the end, you force people to start talking.

And things get done, amendments get done.

And Chairman Paul Sarlo's Senate Budget Committee will wait until 8 o'clock this Friday night to get things done by voting on New Jersey's budget bill.

Sarlo said the package won't differ much from Governor Murphy's record $58.1 billion spending plan unveiled months ago.

The Governor's budget message has not changed much.

The overall budget hasn't changed.

The full dollar amount, the $6 billion surplus hasn't changed.

So what's different?

Taxes.

The committee voted along party lines Thursday to release several revenue raisers, but at lower amounts than the Governor originally wanted to plug a $1.2 billion budget hole.

Instead of raising online gambling and sports betting tax rates to 25%, a bill would boost them to 19.75%.

Business leaders still aren't thrilled.

The city is kind of the powerhouse of South Jersey, and we don't want to do anything to impact their competitiveness with other states.

I know, Chairman, you've worked really hard to get to this compromise, and we do appreciate that it is less than what the Governor proposed.

The committee approved measures to raise cigarette and nicotine vape cartridge taxes, and it also reworked a so-called mansion tax, which currently charges the buyer 1% of property sales worth over a million dollars.

The new levy would charge the seller instead and wouldn't trigger a transfer tax until the sale price hits $2 million.

Fees would start at 2% and range up to 3.5% for property transfers worth $3.5 million or more.

Realtors objected.

Obviously, we do have great concerns about what this could do to the higher-end market.

However, transferring over the buyer's 1% over to the seller with the current market that we see, I think this is going to help a vast majority of New Jerseyans.

And the way we're looking at the numbers, it's only 2% of properties that are affected at the end of the day.

The bulk of property owners, real property owners, are not going to be affected by this change.

Progressive advocates called it a common-sense solution.

This is a model for other progressive revenue raising in the state that we are going to need more of.

Certainly, you all are looking at the same budget projections and numbers that we are, looking at the state health benefits plan projections.

We are seeing that costs are going to increase and that there's a risk of real revenue cuts coming down the line.

In fact, state workers wearing red T-shirts turned out to protest a reported budget proposal that would save money by cutting $100 million in their health care benefits.

To add even more uncertainty, Trenton lawmakers are bracing for deep cuts in federal aid.

Who knows what's going to happen on the federal government level, right?

They're going to pass it on July 4th.

And I'll complain about that, too.

The public should be part of this and should know exactly what's happening.

Frustrated Republicans railed about having to wait until late Friday to even get a copy of the budget proposal.

They worried the plan contains unaffordable items, including the stay-and-jay property tax relief program that could ultimately cost over a billion dollars a year and unbalance future budgets.

It's about a three to four billion dollar structural deficit.

It's falling like a ticking time bomb into the lap of the next governor, whoever he or she may be.

So they are getting off to a good start with a six billion dollar surplus.

Sarlo says Democrats and the governor's office agree on this budget.

The legislature meets Monday to make it official and send the governor a balanced budget before the midnight deadline.

In Trenton, I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

♪♪♪