ALBANY -- Although they missed the goal of an on-time budget to help put an unprecedented month of scandal and turmoil behind them, the Senate and Assembly struck a tentative agreement Tuesday on spending bills in a $124 billion state budget scheduled to be approved Wednesday.

The budget was due April 1.

The tentative agreement negotiated behind closed doors would increase spending 4.5 percent, include $1.1 billion in capital projects statewide, and add about $1 billion worth of increases in narrow taxes, such as the cigarette tax, and user fees. A record $1.8 billion increase in school aid, to a total of about $20 billion, is also included.

And despite the nearly $5 billion deficit and declining revenues, the budget deal also includes $170 million in pork-barrel spending for lawmakers to direct to organizations and programs back in their home districts this election year.

Holding up a vote on the spending bills was late agreement Tuesday on a legislative proposal pushed by one of Albany's most powerful lobbyists: The New York State United Teachers union. The measure prohibits school districts from denying tenure to a teacher based on the performance of his or her students on standardized tests. The agreement also sets up a study group to recommend further standards.

The state School Board Association, which accused the union of trying to sneak the measure past the public, agreed to the compromise, according to a letter from its lobbyist.

"It's Albany at its worst: Secret, late and special interest deals," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Gov. David Paterson had hoped passing a timely budget would help put a tumultuous four weeks behind state lawmakers. Paterson has been on the job since March 17, when Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after he was implicated in a prostitution investigation.

"I think we are far enough along that I'm going to have a conference with the members tomorrow morning," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday. "The Senate will have the same conference and I think we'll be in a position to pass the budget in daylight tomorrow."

"It's concluded except for some mechanics and printing issues," said John McArdle, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

In the $1.1 billion capital projects plan, the Senate and Assembly would each direct $350 million of the spending and Paterson would direct $400 million. Lawmakers have defended this spending as funding construction that will spur economic growth in communities suffering from a stagnant upstate economy.

In the pork-barrel spending lawmakers prefer to call "member items," the deal calls for the Senate and Assembly to each direct $85 million in spending. The governor will decide how $30 million is spent. The deal calls for most of the pork-barrel spending to be funded by unused money from the 2007-08 budget, rather than from new spending.

The pork-barrel projects will be outlined in legislation that could be released publicly and voted on Wednesday. In 2007, lawmakers agreed to no longer pass members items in a lump sum, but to detail the projects.