HARRISBURG -- Partisan differences and long delays in enacting a 2009-10 state budget are making a lot of people pessimistic, but not Gov. Ed Rendell.

Despite the fact that House Democrats have refused to go along with a tentative budget plan reached Sept. 18 by three of the four legislative caucuses, Mr. Rendell said yesterday, "I believe we are close to having a budget."

He said he differed from some officials, such as Senate Republican leader Dominic Pileggi, who had said the House's approval on Friday of its own version of a $27.9 billion tax package "puts us back to square one."

Mr. Rendell said he doesn't think things are all the way back to the starting line. He plans to talk today to Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate, who had signed on to the Sept. 18 budget deal that House Democrats now have rejected.

Pennsylvania is now more than three months late in enacting a budget and is the only state in the nation without one.

Senate leaders of both parties differ with House Democrats over four tax issues. The Senate wants to remove the state sales tax exemption for tickets to zoos, museums and arts and cultural events. The Senate also favors a 20 percent tax on "small games of chance" run by fraternal and veterans groups with state liquor licenses.

House Democrats oppose those ideas. Their tax bill includes a new severance tax on natural gas pumped from underground areas of Marcellus shale, and a new excise tax on sales of cigars, cigarillos and smokeless tobacco. The House and Senate do agree on raising the cigarette tax by 25 cents per pack.

Mr. Rendell said the passage on Friday of House Bill 1531, which would tax natural gas extraction and cigars and smokeless tobacco, "is a step back" in the budget process, because the Senate is certain to reject it. But he added, "It does reflect the will of the Democrats in the House."

He said he personally doesn't like the idea of applying the sales tax to tickets of arts and cultural groups and zoos but would go along with it in order to resolve the budget dilemma.

"If we can put aside our personal preferences and work for what is good for the people, we can get a budget done," he said yesterday.

First Published: October 4, 2009, 4:00 a.m.