Senate Budget Committee Chairman JD Alexander said he hopes to make additional changes to reduce the financial effect on public employees when the House and Senate negotiate differences in their budget bills.

"I don't see this getting worse," said Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate. "This can only get better."

Both chambers will vote Thursday on budget bills for the fiscal year beginning July 1, and conforming legislation including the pension measures.

The House is looking at a $66.5 billion appropriations bill — $4 billion less than being spend in the current year. The Senate's version weighs in at $3.3 billion more than the House plan. That spread is due largely to accounting differences.

Both make deep cuts in education, health care, environmental protection and other public services.

The Senate also deleted a pension provision not included in the House bill that would have excluded all employees hired after July 1 from the standard pension plan, which offers guaranteed retirement benefits.

The Senate agreed, instead, to exclude only elected officials and senior management employees who would be offered a defined contribution retirement plan similar to a 401(k). Benefits in such plans depend on how well each employee's investments work out.

The Senate also agreed to delay for five years the repeal of a program that lets retirement-eligible employees continue working, collecting both a salary and retirement benefits.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott had proposed a 5 percent employee contribution rate and requiring all new hires to go into a defined contribution plan. Scott, formerly the head of a hospital chain, argued the business community is heading in that direction and public employees shouldn't have better benefits than their private sector counterparts.

Employee unions have opposed the pension changes, contending there's no need for them because Florida's retirement system is one of the nation's strongest. They say the changes are simply an effort to balance the state budget on the backs of public employees.

Alexander, of Lake Wales, defended the proposed contribution requirements even though he pledged to try to reduce them.

"I do believe that given the totality of the budget it's only fair — given the overall financial crisis that our state finds itself in — that we ask our fellow employees and ourselves to contribute to our pension," Alexander said.

In the House, Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West suggested the employee pension contributions would violate a ban on a personal income tax in the Florida Constitution.

"Why is this not an income tax?" Saunders asked. "Where do you draw the line?"

The House bill's sponsor, Rep. Ritch Workman, said it's not a tax because employees can get their contributions back if they leave public employment before retiring.