FRANKFORT — In putting together the jigsaw puzzle that is the state's budget, House members have shaved pieces, taped others and used some from different displays altogether. They acknowledge the total picture is not pretty.

        By scavenging money from a range of accounts, fees and bureaucratic cubbyholes, the House version of the budget manages to provide funding to some minor pet items. It also includes some policy directives on topics large and small.

        But most were left wanting.

        The budget passed by the House Wednesday, 96-1, is what amounts to a first draft. Gov. Paul Patton proposed his spending plan on Jan. 22. After the House vote, the Senate will offer its version, and the differences will be resolved in a conference committee, probably in early April.

        The most significant departure from Mr. Patton's plan was on the topic of state aid to schools.

        Mr. Patton had proposed a directive that schools provide a 2.7-percent pay raise to their employees in the fiscal year that begins July 1, but provided no specific state funding to do so.

        The House budget does not really provide much more state aid to schools, but takes money from unused health coverage funds and directs it into the basic state aid program, known as SEEK.

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