SACRAMENTO (AP) - An agreement to give Gov. Pete Wilson at least part of the $3.6 billion tax cut he has been seeking since May could end the state's 35-day budget standoff, Capitol sources said Tuesday.
But spokesmen for Wilson and legislative leaders of both parties stressed that no final budget or tax-cut agreement has been reached, and that it is unlikely that the stalemate will end before next week at the earliest.
They did confirm that a verbal agreement was reached Sunday among Wilson and four top legislative leaders to cut vehicle license fees by $1.4 billion next year. That tax cut would increase to $3.6 billion annually by 2004 if state tax revenues continue to exceed estimates.
The same group - nicknamed ''The Big Five'' in the Capitol - plans to meet again Wednesday to review a written version of the compromise.
If they all approve the written version, that could resolve the biggest single stumbling block in the way of enacting a $76 billion state budget for the fiscal year which began July 1.
None of the five parties to the agreement would comment on the record, but several legislative aides confirmed various details.
''We're not supposed to be talking. But the answer is, 'Yes, it appears that there is an agreement. We'll know for sure on Wednesday,''' one Capitol source said.
Another legislative aide listed key details of the proposal. He said it added up to a tax cut in the dollar amount sought by Wilson, but not entirely in the form Wilson proposed.
But a spokesman for the Democratic leader of the state Senate, John Burton of San Francisco, said that while significant progress has been made on a bipartisan deal, there were still unresolved differences between Democrats and the Republican governor.
''We are not of the opinion there is a deal,'' Burton spokesman Sandy Harrison said. ''We are in agreement on a lot of things, including the major provisions of the tax cut. But there are a lot of provisions that have not been finalized.''
A spokesman for Bill Leonard, the Republican leader of the Assembly, also stressed that there are still unresolved issues that must be settled before either the budget or a tax cut are enacted.
''Assemblyman Leonard saw a lot of these news stories today (about a budget agreement) as premature,'' Leonard spokesman Daven Oswalt said. ''There are a lot of things being negotiated that are not final.''
Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh also said it was premature to claim final agreement, because translating a verbal agreement into a written agreement often takes time and can be full of pitfalls.
''We have framework agreements on a number of issues that have been discussed over the past month. But the devil is in the details,'' Walsh said. ''We in the governor's office are using the Ronald Reagan language: trust but verify. We need to verify the actual language.''
Even if agreement is near, the stalemate was unjustified, state Controller Kathleen Connell said in a telephone conference call from her Culver City office.
''It has been an extended and unnecessary delay in this budget, and I would argue that we could have reached this conclusion in June as easily as we're reaching it in August,'' she said.
The key is a 25-percent cut in 1999 in California's vehicle license fees, which now average $185 per vehicle.
Wilson wanted that increased automatically in three steps to a 75-percent, $3.6-billion annual cut by 2003. But the agreement now under consideration allows the second and third cuts only if the state's economy remains robust and revenues continue to exceed official estimates for the next five years.