Eleven days ago, Rendell and Democratic legislative leaders, joined by Senate Republicans, announced a handshake agreement to end the state's three-month-old budget impasse.
But details of the $27.9 billion deal, promised at that time, have not emerged. Rendell said he wanted legislators to work through the week and into the weekend if necessary to finish the job.
Rendell's acknowledgment that the bills might take another week to reach his desk was the latest sign of lingering uncertainties over the budget deal. So were comments yesterday from Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) and Dwight Evans, who heads the House Appropriations Committee.
Pileggi called the Sunday deadline a "best-case scenario." He said he and his staff would work diligently to complete the process by early next week.
Evans (D., Phila.) also was reluctant to put a date on the budget's completion or even to specify when a draft version of the budget and as many as 12 related bills would be ready for public review.
"We're doing everything we can to get this done," said Evans.
Rendell's call for a deadline comes as discontent mounts among a number of lawmakers who oppose various revenue-generating items, all added to the deal to fill a billion-dollar-plus shortfall.
Some legislators oppose expanded natural-gas drilling on state land. Some are against a tax on small games of chance. Others are against the proposed tax on arts, museums, and cultural events.
"I'm not comfortable with the arts and culture tax," said Rendell. "It would have been the last exemption I'd have lifted."
Rendell has said repeatedly, however, that after legislators ditched his original budget-balancing proposal - an increase in the state income tax - he offered them a menu of sales-tax exemptions, and said he would accept their choice of which ones they wanted to abolish to balance the budget.
