Earlier in the day, the Senate, too, took less than a half-hour to approve the deal in a 37-13 vote.
The bill now goes to Rendell's desk for his signature. The governor said in a statement that he intends to sign it; he could do so as early as Friday. But he said he would hold off until several other budget-related bills, including one for capital expenditures, are passed.
There could be one snag: a dispute between Republicans who control the Senate and Democrats who control the House over the creation of an independent budget office to issue revenue projections and spending reports. Senate Republicans are championing the idea, but House Democrats are resisting - and that could stall passage of the capital expenditure bill.
"It is a line in the sand for us," said Drew Crompton, a Senate Republican lawyer. "But I don't think it's catastrophic. I get the sense that there's interest in resolving it."
Rendell called the budget's swift passage "a reflection of what can happen when leaders from all quarters and all parties come together to make difficult and important decisions in a bipartisan and timely fashion."
The budget calls for spending about $1 billion less than Rendell had originally proposed, and would boost spending over this year less than 1 percent.
And it does not raise taxes.
But it does leave many critical questions unanswered.
The spending plan relies on hundreds of millions in federal Medicaid funds from Congress that do not appear likely to materialize.
And it calls for taxing the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation - but puts off until fall such critical decisions as what the tax rate will be, how much revenue is expected, and how that revenue is to be disbursed.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) said Wednesday that the bill reflects that "we are living through a national recession."
As a result, he said, "we had to make tough but necessary decisions to produce a balanced budget."
