Today @NCCapitol (7/30): Still waiting on budget docs

But as of 5 a.m. Wednesday morning, the agreement has yet to take form as a publicly available budget document. That makes it a bit like Schrödinger's cat – simultaneously the thing everyone around state government is talking about and making plans around, but also ephemeral and not quite reality.  

House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger led a news conference Tuesday during which they insisted their budget would be the "biggest pay raise for teachers in the state's history," but they did not produce the numbers to show how they paid for that raise. 

Gov. Pat McCrory threw some shade on the deal as well, saying Tuesday afternoon that he was still working through potential problems with lawmakers.

"There are several major issues that are being worked on, including Medicaid eligibility, to hopefully avoid a veto. We appreciate the ongoing dialogue," said McCrory spokesman Josh Ellis.

All of that leaves many people waiting for a peek at the document itself before they're truly ready to declare the budget a done deal. Budget writers say they expect to publish budget documents online sometime on Wednesday. 

Adjournment could come Friday, or more likely on Saturday morning, but not without a couple of big caveats. 

Although no plans are final, a post-Election Day return to work is being discussed.

Second, there is a school of thought that say, with ongoing tension between the Governor's Office and the legislature, lawmakers could adjourn to a date certain roughly 12 days from Saturday rather than sine die. When the legislature adjourns sine die – Latin for "without day" or English for "not coming back unless something blows up" – the governor has 30 days to sign or veto anything on his desk. An adjournment until a date certain would give him just 10 days.