AUSTIN — House and Senate negotiators remained optimistic Wednesday they would finalize a new Texas budget by midnight amid last-minute uncertainty over how much money would be restored to public schools socked by historic spending cuts two years ago.
Details on daylong talks were kept tightly guarded. But when asked whether the deal still called for reversing $3.2 billion of the massive cuts to public schools in 2011, the House budget chief seemed to suggest that number may not be firm.