Gov. Ed Rendell today proposed an increase in the state personal income tax to 3.57 percent from the current rate of 3.07 percent.

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Citing the national recession and a growing state budget deficit, the governor called for the increase for the next three years, after which it would drop back to 3.07 percent.

A news release said the increase would raise $1.5 billion, which, with other new or expanded taxes Mr. Rendell has proposed, would cover the projected 2009-10 budget deficit.

The governor said such a temporary increase has been used several times in Pennsylvania history and it has always been returned to previous levels once an economic crisis passed.

In making his proposal, the governor said he rejects the Republican Senate-passed budget plan, which would try to balance the budget with cuts rather that tax increases.

Mr. Rendell noted that he had already cut allocations in his budget proposal and proposed new or expanded taxes on tobacco and natural gas drilling.

But he said that combination was still about $1 billion short of covering the anticipated $3.2 billion shortfall.

He said he was unwilling to make all the cuts called for by Republicans, which he said would fall unfairly on education and job creation efforts.

Mr. Rendell released the proposal in advance of a visit to the new Westinghouse headquarters in Cranberry this morning. He said state economic development funds, targeted by the Republicans for cuts, helped keep the company in Pennsylvania.

He said "Wall Street greed" created the problems.

"Families did not create this mess, but we are the ones who must clean it up," he said in the press release.

Mr. Rendell said Pennsylvania's levy is the second lowest among the 41 states that have a personal income tax, and he said the 3.57 percent he seeks would still be the third lowest.

Senate Republican spokesman Erik Arneson said that new state budget "can and should be balanced without tax increases. As families across the state are tightening their belts in these tough economic times, the state should do the same.''

Republicans, who run the Senate, approved a $27.3 billion budget last month, which is far lower than the $29 billion budget Mr. Rendell has proposed. The GOP budget contains no tax increases but is balanced with major spending cuts, which have raised cries from those affected, such as libraries, museums, nursing homes, hospitals and others.

House Republican leader Sam Smith of Punxsutawney said he sees little or no support for a PIT increase among the 99 House Republicans. He also predicted "25 to 30'' of the 104 Democrats would vote against it also.

He doubted the tax increase would be "temporary,'' as Mr. Rendell is calling for.

"Remember the Johnstown flood tax,'' Mr. Smith said, referring to an 18 percent tax on bottles of liquor, imposed in 1936 to raise funds for the Johnstown flood recovery, which has never gone away.

Also, the Legislature raised the PIT from 2.1 percent to 3.1 percent in 1991, taking it back down to 2.8 percent a year later, but didn't make a full recission.

Mr. Smith said that raising the tax from 3.07 percent to 3.57 percent is "a 16 percent increase in the PIT rate, which is huge for many households. It's the difference between going on vacation or not.''

Matthew Brouillette, president of a conservative think tank called the Commonwealth Foundation, blasted the call for a higher income tax, saying it is "precisely the wrong prescription for our economic ills. Apparently Gov. Rendell doesn't agree with President Obama, who said this isn't the time to be raising taxes. But Mr. Rendell's insatiable appetite for spending is causing him to do this. ''

He said that many Pennsylvania small companies pay taxes according to the PIT rate of 3.07 percent, not the corporate income tax rate of 9.99 percent, and raising the PIT rate could cost as many as 23,000 jobs, according to an economic modeling study done at Suffolk University in Massachusetts.