Oklahoma state leaders generally protected funding for education and health care in a proposed budget released Tuesday, ending months of concerns that Medicaid and schools would be gutted.

"Thankfully, those worst-case scenarios can be averted by passing this budget," Gov. Mary Fallin said. "This agreement closes a sizable portion of a monumental budget hole and prevents the dire, unacceptable outcomes so many Oklahomans have feared may happen this session."

Negotiators from the House, the Senate and the governor's office made their proposal public just three days before the end of the four-month legislative session.

Their job was complicated by tax revenue reductions tied to a downturn in the oil industry, cuts in the state income tax rate and a long list of tax breaks.