By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - For the second time in two years, the General Assembly could be headed for adjournment without a budget.

Negotiations between House and Senate conferees never got off the ground this week. Late Thursday, they collapsed altogether, the two sides entrenched.

The General Assembly is to reconvene Monday, roughly where it left off when it began a long recess March 30 - each chamber still with its own version of a $14.9 billion spending plan.

The two are at an impasse over Gov. Ernie Fletcher's desire for a new tax code that, in part, raises taxes on tobacco products, alcoholic beverages and telecommunications while lowering corporate tax rates and individual income taxes.

The Republican-controlled Senate included the tax plan in its budget bill, with all 22 Senate Republicans voting for it.

Senate conferees insisted on keeping the tax plan in a final budget. Democrats who control the House refused.

Senate President David Williams said Senate conferees were trying to craft a fallback budget with sweeteners to win House Democratic votes. The Senate budget would be "House friendly," he said.

A budget bill takes 51 votes in the House, where Democrats hold a 64-36 majority. Fifteen Democrats would have to be peeled away, if House Republicans remain unified.

Should the General Assembly end Tuesday without a budget, "the governor will have us back up here soon enough" in special session, Williams said.