The Rendell administration had told the workers, deemed "non-critical," not to come to work on Monday unless the budget impasse was resolved. That would force the closure of many services and facilities, from state parks, drivers' license centers, and the five Pennsylvania casinos.
About 52,000 employees deemed essential to public safety and health, from state police to welfare caseworkers, would remain on the job.
The House spent several hours today debating one of the governor's budget prerequisites: a statewide smoking ban. But the chamber broke off discussions at 7 p.m. with a vote on the measure still days away.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania's largest state employee union said today that it planned to file a lawsuit to block the threatened furloughs.
The lawsuit by Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will challenge the legality of dividing most state workers' jobs into "critical" and "non-critical" classifications, said David Fillman, the union's executive director.
A separate filing with the same court indicated how testy the budget divide has become.
Sen. Jane Earll (R., Erie) asked Commonwealth Court this afternoon to compel two Rendell cabinet secretaries to testify before a committee examining the pending casino closings.
On Thursday, the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee issued subpoenas ordering Office of Administration Secretary Joseph Martz and Revenue Secretary Thomas Wolf to answer questions today. The two were unavailable, the administration said, until Wednesday.
That's too late, said Earll, noting that casinos were to close at 7 a.m. Monday if no budget accord was reached.
"To have to go through all of these hoops just to get answers to questions, we are escalating this into a stratosphere that is completely unnecessary," she said.
