The state legislature burned the midnight oil into Friday morning trying to hammer out some details for next year's budget.

"We were in session until 1 o'clock in the morning hashing out things like Cobo hall and the budget," Representative Rick Jones said. "Budgets were bouncing back and forth between the House and the Senate and some things were sent to conference."

But no votes were taken. It seems no decisions were made.

Trying to get comment on what happened at about 4 o'clock on a Friday is always tough. But this time, lawmakers won't be back Monday or even the next Monday after that.

And now begins lawmakers regular two week break from session. When they get back they'll have less than 12 weeks to balance next year's budget.... a budget that has a $1.8 billion hole.

"We've got to find billions of dollars, that's billions with a "b," Jones said.

The legislature took its regularly scheduled two week session break in 2007 with a much smaller budget deficit. Even with an extra month, lawmakers could not agree, which caused the state to shut down for a few hours.

With such a big job ahead this year, and very little time to do it, the question is: could these two weeks be better spent?

"I don't think it's truly a vacation time," Jones said. "It's a time when we're not in session. Now is the time for Mike Bishop to sit down with Governor Granholm and leaders in the House and start setting targets. Then, in two weeks, when legislators come back from their districts, let's get down to business."

The senate has voted to cut the Michigan Promise Scholarship, but it's not a done-deal yet. They also voted to ban taxpayer dollars from funding the new state police headquarters, but the House did not vote on that last night -- so that is still up in the air.