CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia Legislature passed slightly different versions of a new state budget Wednesday, with each chamber embracing most of the nearly $200 million worth of cuts that were recommended by Gov. Joe Manchin.

The House of Delegates voted 76-19 with five absences -- just enough for the sufficient majority -- to suspend the rules and allow for passage a day earlier than scheduled. It then sent its revised spending measure to the Senate with a vote of 82-13.

The Senate later unanimously passed its version of the budget, after also suspending the rules.

The dueling versions, which differ by $2.8 million, set the stage for a joint conference committee to begin crafting a compromise.

The two chambers are expected to appoint the conference committee Thursday. The senators and delegates have given themselves until June 6 to complete this extended session.

If they finish early, Manchin wants to follow with a special session to revisit several bills that failed during the regular session, most of them from his legislative agenda.

Both the House and Senate versions take effect July 1 and include around $4.2 billion worth of spending backed by general tax and lottery revenues. The Senate's is $200 million smaller than what Manchin first proposed in February, while the House cuts total $197 million.

The recession prompted the governor to project a decline in the tax and lottery revenue sources by $197 million.

Lawmakers decided to wait until after their regular session ended last month to finish the budget to see whether the state's economy worsened. Buoyed by better-than-expected April tax revenues, the Legislature began the extended session Tuesday.

Both versions rely on $78 million from the federal stimulus to offset several large cuts from the general revenue portion of the budget: $23 million for public schools, $11 million for higher education and $44 million for Medicaid.

House Minority Leader Tim Armstead and other Republican delegates said they objected to including stimulus dollars. Manchin and Democratic lawmakers had both previously also favored applying those funds toward only temporary spending.

"We need to be very careful and consider very carefully filling holes in this budget with such one-time money as economic stimulus funding," said Armstead, of Kanawha County. "This budget, to a degree, just delays some inevitable hard choices that have to be made."

House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White noted the stimulus' goal of reviving the economy, expressing hope that regular state revenues will begin to improve.

"We're one of the few states that doesn't have to use all of its stimulus to balance its budget," said White, D-Mingo. "We've balanced the budget without cuts to services, without layoffs and without tax increases."

Both versions cut another $51.1 million meant for a special trust fund covering the non-pension benefits of future public retirees. They also zero out $15 million for a reserve account overseen by legislative leaders, and $3.9 million for the governor's civil contingency fund.

Other cuts include $1.4 million for new State Police vehicle purchases, or 70 percent of what had been budgeted, and all $250,900 meant for the state treasurer's Personal Finance Education Program.

Some cuts have been offset by other funding sources. Fee proceeds, for instance, will cover the $249,000 removed from the general revenue budget for staffing at the Division of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.

Most of the differences between the two versions occur in sections outlining general revenue spending on public schools, economic development programs and the Department of Health and Human Resources.

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