New Hampshire lawmakers are about the enter the homestretch of this year's legislative session.

Over the next week, they'll try to compromise on a pile of bills, making deals and trading favors on legislation that passed both chambers, but in different versions. The House and Senate are divided on bills dealing with jail sentences for sex offenders, changes to welfare regulations, building a wood-burning power plant in Berlin, do-not-resuscitate orders and school vouchers.

The negotiations also carry important political ramifications, as Gov. John Lynch and other politicians prepare for the upcoming campaign season. Lynch, a Democrat who's finishing his first term, is looking for accomplishments he can take to voters.

For Lynch, the most critical negotiations center on legislation that would increase penalties for child molesters. Lynch made the bill a central piece of his 2006 agenda and pushed for its passage by the Legislature earlier this year. The Senate passed a version nearly identical to what Lynch proposed. But House lawmakers removed a key provision that would mandate 25-year minimum sentences for first-time sex offenders.

Pam Walsh, a spokeswoman for Lynch, said the governor is "working with legislative leaders to improve the bill."

The negotiations will also be shaped by political turf wars within the House and Senate. Leaders in both bodies are likely to take a tough stance on bills where the two sides are at loggerheads.

House Speaker Doug Scamman is looking to quell lingering dissatisfaction among conservatives in the House about his leadership style. That conflict was apparent last week, as Rep. Mike Whalley announced that he would challenge Scamman for the speaker's job next session.

On the other side of the State House, Senate President Ted Gatsas could use the negotiating conferences as an opportunity to convince dissatisfied Senate Republicans that he's a tough negotiator and has earned the right to remain the chamber's leader next session.

Gatsas, like Lynch, feels strongly about the 25-year minimum sentence for sex offenders and placed himself on its committee of conference.

"It's truly about protecting kids,"he said. "That scar on that child lasts a lot longer than 25 years."

Here's a look at some of the other major issues lawmakers will try to resolve this week:

School vouchers

One committee will decide on two proposed changes to the way New Hampshire educates its children, weighing how the state should fund charter schools and if the Legislature should sponsor a school voucher program.

As it stands, the bill does three things: Requires the state to pay charter schools directly instead of funneling the money through local school districts, awards $100,000 to each of four charter schools established last year and creates a public-private corporation to provide school vouchers to low-income children.

Both chambers seem to agree on direct payment to charter schools, but the other two provisions in the bill are sources of discontent.

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