HONOLULU -- In an unusually early end to an unusually challenging budget process, state lawmakers began laying out the details of the two-year budget that they said eliminated a $1.3 billion potential deficit.

“We have tried to restore both funding and personnel where most needed,” said House Finance Chair Marcus Oshiro.

“All in all, we a have made important investment decision to move the state forward,” said Ways and Means Chair David Ige.

Details of the overall agreement were not immediately clear, but at least one department, the Department of Human Services, indicated it was satisfied with its budget after hearing that millions in welfare had been restored.

Lawmakers had previously said that savings from public employee wages and health premiums went a long way to reducing the shortfall, along with reduced retirement benefits for incoming employees, which reduced the amount needed to pay into the state pension fund.

The University of Hawaii will be forced to pay for raises for faculty out of its own money, largely generated from tuition. The university faculty union was the only union to have its pay fully restored in its contract, after living with a 6.7 percent pay cut for 18 months. Lawmakers took away about $29 million in general treasury funds from the university over two years, which the university will have to restore from its other revenue sources.

The budget assumes about $88 million per year in employee pay reductions, with an end to monthly furlough days.

Medicaid will be cut $150 million per year, a reduction the director of human services called "manageable" although it will require either fewer people on the Medicaid rolls or reduction in payment for services.

The budget includes about $500 million in spending cuts (including payroll and benefit savings), and also depends on about $500 million in new revenue. The new revenue sources, which could include a pension tax, reduced tax deductions for higher income taxpayers and lost tax breaks for many businesses, are to be determined later Thursday.

Lawmakers faced a Friday deadline to complete the budget in time for floor votes and the end of the legislative session next week.

Lawmakers were also planning to raise taxes, reduce tax exemptions and raise fees to close the deficit, but the details of those plans are not expected until Thursday afternoon, when the money committees were to reconvene.