HARRISBURG -- Sarah Dye of Seton Hill Child Services in Westmoreland County has had to lay off staff and turn children away.

So have operators of dozens of child care facilities who attended a news conference yesterday in Gov. Ed Rendell's reception room.

Although they blame the strife on the state budget impasse that has delayed state subsidies, the operators say the situation would be far worse if Mr. Rendell had buckled to Republican pressure for budget cuts. Instead, the governor this month signed a temporary $11 billion budget that includes funding for state employee salaries and little else.

Mr. Rendell says he won't support any spending plan that cuts essential services such as child care and education. He wants to spend $95 million on the Pre-K Counts program; $172 million on child care services and $204 million on child care assistance.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, want to spend $43 million, $160 million and $162 million, respectively.

Cuts like those would decimate programs that families depend on, said Jodi Askins, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children.

That's why she and other advocates say they stand behind the governor's decision to zero out all their state funding as a way to protest Republican-backed cuts. If he hadn't done that, he would have lost leverage to get more funding in ongoing budget negotiations, he acknowledged yesterday.

Ms. Dye, whose centers serve 400 children in seven Westmoreland County locations, said the lack of funding during the impasse hurts, but isn't as devastating as the problems she would face if the Republican-backed budget were to become law.

"Whatever the problems are now ... accepting cuts to early childhood care is worse," she said. "We need a budget now, a responsible budget that fully funds child care."

Ms. Dye receives about a third of her funding from the state and the rest from federal grants and the families her centers serve. Most children at her center come from low-income families and pay on a sliding scale, she said.

The budget has been in deadlock since the last fiscal year ended June 30. Overall, Mr. Rendell favors a $28.2 billion spending plan, which would require a tax increase, while Republicans want to hold the line on taxes with a budget of $27.3 billion or less.

State budget reductions also are drastically shortening the hours of operation at the state library in Harrisburg. Starting this week, it will only be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Previously it was open a total of 481/2 hours, six days a week. Last week, 21 of its 51 workers were laid off.