HARRISBURG -- State Senate leaders today boycotted a conference committee meeting to discuss a state budget proposal and prepared to introduce their own budget plan this evening.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said today that Senate Republicans, joined by Senate Democrats, are fashioning a revised budget bill and a companion tax bill, and will make them public tonight. The two measures could be voted on in the Senate as early as tomorrow and sent to the House.

If the House were to agree, the bills could be on the governor's desk by late this week, he said.

He wouldn't discuss the details of the spending or the taxing, but the bottom line of the Senate budget is believed to be about $27.8 billion, or about $100 million less than the $27.9 billion "three caucus" budget that was adopted Sept. 18 by leaders of Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats and House Democrats, along with Gov. Ed Rendell.

House Democrats jumped ship last week when they approved a $27.9 billion budget that had different tax elements than the Sept. 18 proposal had. House Democrats criticized some of the revenue-raising ideas that senators came up with.

Mr. Pileggi said he and Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, were not going to attend today's meeting of a six-member, House-Senate budget conference committee, which is run by Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia. Mr. Pileggi said the committee's work has been "a disappointing process" filled with "delays and inefficiency."

That is why the Senate has decided to go in a new direction and develop a revised budget. He hopes the House will agree to the Senate proposal.

Earlier, an aide to Mr. Evans told reporters a completely new version of the budget could add three more weeks to the budget process. The budget should have been adopted by the start of the new fiscal year July 1.

"I have long since given up predicting what the House will do," Mr. Pileggi said. He said he watched some of the eight hours of Sunday's House debate on a bill to allow table games in state casinos, and based on how that dragged out, he quipped, "We could be three months in getting a budget."

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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