HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell told legislative leaders that he wants to resolve a $282 million budget shortfall largely with across-the-board cuts and a tax on natural gas extraction.

The governor's plan calls for cutting discretionary line items by 1.9 percent. His chief of staff, Steve Crawford, said the cuts -- if done in the executive budget as well as those of the Legislature, courts, auditor general and treasurer -- would amount to $212 million. The natural gas extraction tax would add another $70 million.

The governor has asked legislators to respond by Monday.

The state budget was approved on the hope that the state would receive a additional $850 million for medical assistance for the poor. On Tuesday, after the legislation was signed by President Barack Obama, officials said the state would get $600 million. By Wednesday, however, some officials thought the state might get even less.

The governor's plan would reduce the basic education subsidy by $50 million and other education line items by $17 million, including a $4.9 million reduction in accountability block grants and $4.2 million in charter school reimbursement.

Even with the $50 million cut, the basic education subsidy still would be a $200 million increase over the funding for 2009-10.

"We can't really complain too hard about it," said Tim Allwein, assistant director of member and governmental relations of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

"On the one hand, $50 million means a lot fewer services, a lot fewer educational opportunities for kids. On the other hand, you look at the state budget, and I think $200 million [increase] is still a very good subsidy in a year when the economy is so bad and just about everybody else in the budget took a step backward."

Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, said realists never thought the $250 million increase would survive intact, given it was based on Medicaid money not yet secured.

In addition, the bill the president signed Tuesday provides money to save K-12 education jobs, including $387.8 million for Pennsylvania. The money is intended for jobs that touch on instruction, not facilities or central administration.

State officials are in the process of learning more about how this money can be spent and deciding how to allocate it among districts.

Mr. Himes. who called the education jobs money good news, said, "I think in the near term there's going to be some chaos budget-wise until things shake out."

Mr. Crawford said the governor had worked with "tenacity" along with other governors to help to secure money for Medicaid and teacher jobs.

Senate Republicans would prefer to cut state education funding back to 2009-10 levels and fill the holes with the federal infusion.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said, "Level funding for school districts is a victory when [nearly] every other area of the budget is taking substantial cuts."

He is concerned about other areas of Mr. Rendell's proposal, too.

For example, he said the proposed gas-extraction tax would provide too little revenue to local municipalities in Marcellus Shale areas.

Meanwhile, a band of 27 House Republicans has its own thoughts about filling the budget gap. The group says that the first step should be eliminating discretionary spending known as "walking around money" or WAMs.

The group's leader, Rep. Curt Schroder of Chester, identified about $93 million in WAMs he said should be cut. The line items provide money for urban development, cultural activities, zoos, robotic technology and more.

"When red ink drips off every page of the budget, it is inexcusable to have legislative play money to the tune of [almost] $100 million in the budget," Mr. Schroder said. "I call on the governor to do the right thing and eliminate unnecessary funding first, before cutting other areas."

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