Florida's lawmakers struggled Thursday to reach agreement on a $50-billion-plus state budget as the odds grew dim for an on-time finish to this year's legislative session. Meanwhile, leaders in the Senate raised the possibility of creating additional state revenue by removing sales tax exemptions on some services.

Thursday evening, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, told the House that the Senate had "manufactured an imaginary surplus," and was resisting House offers to compromise on differences between the two chambers' budget plans.

He said that the House had attempted to bridge the budget gap by coming up with nearly $500 million of new revenue without raising taxes or expanding gambling.

"We will continue to bargain in good faith," Byrd said. "If the Senate comes back and says 'No, we don't like that list of $500 million, then we will try to think of some more things that will help get us out of here."

Byrd said that Senate negotiators had suggested two methods of raising additional revenue: delaying the repeal of the intangibles tax by one more year, and removing sales tax exemptions from some services.

A few minutes after Byrd spoke, Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, spoke before the Senate. He stated, "The bottom line is that we have an offer of $475 million on the table. All we want to do is test the validity of that offer. We need to be prudent and financially responsible and test this number."

King told his fellow senators that, contrary to what had been stated by Byrd, the Senate has neither accepted nor refused the House offer.

"It's still on the table," King said. "It's not yet the time to throw in the towel."

The 60-day session is scheduled to end next Friday. But lawmakers can't wait until then to work out a compromise on the budget because of a constitutional requirement that they wait 72 hours after getting the budget to take a final vote.

King said it appears likely that the legislative session will need to be extended by one or two days to complete the budget.

Byrd has insisted that Florida can "live within its means" and meet the needs of the state's top priorities and most vulnerable residents with a $52.3 billion budget.

The Senate had originally called for spending nearly $1 billion more in state funds than the House. King offered to drop that to $500 million and then $475 million Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, King announced on the Senate floor that he had been in multiple conservations with Byrd regarding the drastic difference of nearly $982 million between the two chambers’ budgets.

King’s offer included reducing the Senate budget to a $500-million difference from the House. Byrd declined the initial offer and returned a counteroffer with a difference of $300 million.

In response, King told his Senate colleagues that there would be no way to provide Floridians with the basic necessities that government is suppose to provide without the Senate budget proposal.

“Reducing our budget proposal to a difference of $300 million would not be fair for Florida. This is not eBay,” King stated.

Because King did not want to be held accountable for lowering the budget by that much without consulting with all of the members, he sent another counter offer in writing to Byrd early Wednesday morning. This counter offer contained a difference of $475 million and was based on cutting the original $982 million difference in half.