The median among the states is 3.5 percent, according to budget experts.

How can that be, some lawmakers and budget experts ask.

It should have been rebounding by then, the budget experts had said.

But yesterday, some budget experts suggested that the Mayor had indeed offered the teachers something more.

Administration officials and Congressional budget experts gave several reasons for the discrepancy.

"The critical thing about the governor is that nobody believes him," one Republican budget expert said.

Congressional budget experts predict that the changes would save about $2 billion over the next five years.

There was, to some extent, a heated debate between us and the budget experts.

The Democrats also want the board to establish a team of budget experts to oversee county spending.

Some budget experts inside the administration had expressed similar doubts about the financing of the Clinton plan.