HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell doesn't write a political blog and he's not on Myspace, Facebook or Twitter, but in the last few days he's been going hot and heavy with more traditional media outlets to give his views on the state's budget deadlock.

He's logged 30 interviews with radio and TV stations around the state, as well as several news conferences at the Capitol. Just yesterday, he was on KDKA morning radio with Larry Richert and John Shumway, plus interviews on KYW in Philadelphia and stations in Johnstown, Sunbury, State College and the Lehigh Valley.

On July 16 alone he did 13 interviews, with stations in York, Altoona, Allentown, two in Philadelphia and one with well-known conservative broadcaster Sean Hannity.

There was no cost to those news interviews, but he has also used $15,000 in his political campaign funds to put 2.5-minute budget-related videos on the Web sites of 10 Pennsylvania newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Philadelphia Inquirer and papers in Erie, Scranton, Allentown and elsewhere.

Gary Tuma, a state Democratic party spokesman, said that on the newspaper Web videos the governor "said there is no shortcut out of this (state budget) crisis. He also talked about the need for more revenue and the need to spend money on education."

At a Capitol news conference yesterday, Mr. Rendell downplayed the intensity or significance of the media blitz.

"It's not any different than all the press conferences I did in the prior weeks on (the need to spend enough on) education," he claimed. "It's just to continue to inform (people)."

Philadelphia political consultant Larry Ceisler said Mr. Rendell, former mayor and district attorney in Philadelphia, has been a media-savvy politician for years.

"He's never seen a TV camera or a radio microphone that he didn't like," quipped Mr. Ceisler. "He's comfortable with the media."

With the budget stalemate dragging on for more than three weeks now, and state employees not getting paid, "He has to start to make his case directly with the people of Pennsylvania," Mr. Ceisler said, "so they know what's at stake here."

Having direct and immediate access to the news media "is the bully pulpit of being governor. He certainly has more access than (Republican Lt. Gov.) Joe Scarnati."

Mr. Rendell said that many of his recent radio/TV interviews came "in reaction to what the House did" earlier this week, when it rejected a Senate-approved $27.1 billion budget for fiscal 2009-10.

House Democrats have proposed a budget of $29.1 billion for the fiscal year that started July 1, a plan the Senate has rejected. Therefore, a six-member, House-Senate budget conference committee will be named early next week. It isn't known how long the panel will need to hammer out a budget acceptable to all parties.

Mr. Rendell has offered his own budget proposal of about $28.8 billion. It would increase state funding for basic education by $418 million this year, a point on which he's adamant despite strong opposition by Senate Republicans. He also opposes the Senate GOP's effort to substitute $728 million in federal stimulus dollars for kindergarten through grade 12 costs rather than using state tax funds.

Asked if he was trying to go around Republican senators and sell his budget plan directly to the public, he said, "It's not so much to sell but to explain. There are a lot of misconceptions out there (about the budget). We wanted to both straighten it out and build (support)."

But, he said, based on a question in this week's Quinnipiac poll, there already is public support for adequately funding public schools, even if it means paying more in taxes. In the poll, 53 percent of the respondents were willing to have higher taxes to bolster education, while 43 percent weren't.

"If you look at that poll, I don't think we have to build much support for funding public education," he said. "It's there. People said they're willing to pay more taxes to fund public education. I just wanted to explain what's at stake."

But another question in the poll isn't favorable to Mr. Rendell, who has proposed increasing the personal income tax rate to 3.57 percent from the current 3.07 percent for the next three years. Poll respondents rejected that idea by a 63-33 margin.

Respondents, by the sizable margin of 62-24 percent, said they'd rather have the sales tax increased than the income tax. Mr. Rendell said he's open to that idea, as long as it provides dependable, sustainable revenue. Which tax gets increased -- or whether any tax gets increased -- is one of the major questions the House, Senate and governor still have to resolve.