Lawmakers face a 6 p.m. cutoff time Friday (April 27). If a bill has not emerged from conference committee, it’s very likely dead for the session — with the oft-cited caveat that nothing is ever dead at the Ledge until sine die.

A lot will depend on how things go when the money conferees take up the state budget and construction projects this morning. It’s been a difficult negotiation.

If the budget passes, that will make it a whole lot easier for other bills to follow suit; if it does not, look for lawmakers to extend deadlines … or else a whole lot of bills will die.

Among the bills Civil Beat is following are the following (click on the link for details):

Civil unions, online voter registration, campaign spending database, homeless return tickets, ethics in charter schools, a veterans’ court, exemptions for transit, aerospace development, telecommunications regulation, food self-sustainability and renewable energy tax credits.