Pennsylvania's Rendell Seeks to Salvage $28 Billion Budget Deal

By Dunstan McNichol

(Bloomberg) -- Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell pressed lawmakers for a new compromise budget, with a legislative impasse reaching its 97th day, after the House passed its own $28 billion spending plan.

Rendell privately met with three Democrats from the House and three from the Senate at the Capitol in Harrisburg late yesterday, two days after the Democratic-controlled House shattered a month-old budget compromise by passing a revised plan that included taxes on cigars and natural gas that the Republican-controlled Senate rejected.

Rendell's half-hour session followed earlier meetings with Republican Senate leaders aimed at resolving a dispute that has left the sixth-largest U.S. state without a budget since July 1. As he stepped into his limousine after the evening meeting, Rendell said a joint conference between Senate and House budget negotiators set for today would likely be postponed, although he said his talks yielded "significant progress."

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