SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- State lawmakers have until midnight Tuesday and were busy at work hoping to get a state budget ready for a vote by the deadline.

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Video: Budget Battles Continue

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NBC5's Dick Kay reported from Springfield where he said while some issues were falling into place, others were clearly not.

Kay said members of the House expected to have the final budget bill passed prior to this homestretch, but they hit a snag. House Black Caucus members want more for their districts, and so they fell off the roll call.

Democrats can't pass the budget as intended without the Black Caucus, so that led to a hastily arranged meeting with House Speaker Michael Madigan Tuesday afternoon to work out the differences with the Black Caucus.

Meanwhile, according to Kay, this budget and this legislative session has set the stage for Gov. Rod Blagojevich's re-election next year. The budget, he said, has so much of what the governor wants in it and Republicans are literally screaming about the proposed expenditures.

"This is an abomination," shouted one Republican representative. "This is an insult to anybody with intelligence above plant life. This is shameful, ladies and gentlemen! Literally shameful!"

The Republican ire was raised by the way Democrats decided to the budget, Kay said. Claiming that Republicans were stalling, the Democrats created a budget all their own.

"The tough decisions had to be made of where we're going to get a revenue stream to ensure we can take care of the needs of the people of this state," said Sen. Donne Trotter, a Democrat from Chicago.

The $57 billion state budget gives the governor almost everything he asked for, Kay said.

It provides $300 million for education, $30 million for pre-school education, $55 million for the CTA.

Lawmakers have chosen to pay for all that by cutting the state's pension contribution. That will be $2.6 billion over the next two years, coupled with reforms.

The budget will sweep surpluses out of special funds.

Republicans called that a disaster.

"For us to be part of this," Minority Leader Frank Watson said to Kay, "(Well,) I'm not sure we want to be part of it. It just really smells here. And people concerned about how state government works ... this may be one of the worst that I've been around here (in 27 years)."

"They played a delay game," Blagojevich said. "They just were sitting in these meetings, unwilling to offer any constructive solutions, and they forced the Democratic leaders and the Democratic governor to work this budget out between us and our Democratic caucuses."

In addition to the budget, Kay said lawmakers used this session to pass medical malpractice reforms with monetary caps. They reformed workers compensation to cut business costs. They closed the gun show loophole to require criminal background checks, and agreed to limit the sale of violent or sexual video games.