At a briefing earlier this week, State Senator Joseph Robach was optimistic. After discussions with his Assembly counterparts, the Rochester Republican said he thought it likely that New York could "pretty much keep the safety net we had in place." After all, negotiators had narrowed the differences in human services funding between the Senate and Assembly budgets to $20 million—not a huge slice of the state's $133 billion budget pie.

But while the two houses were closing in on an agreement, they were still at least $150 million apart from Governor Cuomo's proposal.

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And in both the agreements and disagreements between the Senate and Assembly, there was bad news for some of the social programs that the governor placed on the chopping block.

According to Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright—a Democrat leading the Assembly delegation in talks with Robach's Senate team about the human services budget—the two sides have agreed to fully restore discretionary funding under Title 20, which covers services like senior centers. They've also agreed to consolidate funding for some homeless programs, as Cuomo requested, but rejected his bid to consolidate several youth services into a reduced-cost competitive grant program. The delegations also agreed to restore funding for summer youth employment and childcare demonstration projects.

Negotiations continue over broad changes to the juvenile justice system (particularly, Robach indicated, how to redeploy staff whose facilities close) and potential changes to the unemployment insurance system.

But bigger disagreements surround the welfare system.

Cuomo proposed changing the system so that when a recipient fails for a second time to abide by workfare requirements, a family can lose its entire welfare check; the current system pro-rates the penalty to take only the would-be worker's share of the benefit.

Cuomo also called for delaying for one year a planned increase in the basic welfare grant. After remaining stagnant for nearly two decades, the grant has been increased by 10 percent each of the past two years, and a third and final 10 percent hike was to occur next year.

The Assembly wants only a six-month delay in the basic grant increase, and opposes full family sanctions.

The Senate wants not just to forego the 10 percent increase in the basic grant, but to roll it back 11 percent, according to advocates, and supports full family sanctions.

The 10 percent increase in the grant would mean a roughly $30 per month boost in the benefits received by a household of three—a dollar a day, according to Liz Accles, senior policy analyst for income security at the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies. "This is where the governor and the Senate are looking to save money, in theory, on people at the lowest end of the income ladder," she says. "It is really a travesty and will cost [more] in the long run."

Even in areas where the two delegations appear to have agreed on restorations, notes Citizens' Committee for Children executive director Jennifer March-Joly, the full Senate and Assembly need to approve them, and the governor ultimately must agree as well. What's more, while there appears to be agreement on some important restorations, "The amount restored to these program areas is still not known," March-Joly adds.

Unaddressed during the Monday briefing where Wright and Robach spoke was the fate of the Work Advantage Program, a New York City initiative that provides a temporary housing subsidy to homeless families leaving the shelter system.