NOW, SOME thoughts on

the budget that isn't.

Today is the start of the state fiscal year, the seventh consecutive year that the largest full-time legislature in America has failed to do the one thing that it's required to do: pass a balanced spending plan by July 1.

Not coincidentally, this seven-year glitch corresponds with the incumbency of Edward G. "You Didn't Elect Me King" Rendell.

Presumably, if we had elected him king, the state wouldn't be facing a $3.2 billion deficit and the specter of higher taxes to pay for it.

Instead, we'd have riverboat gambling in any body of water bigger than a bathtub; 70,000 video poker machines in restaurants, bars and private clubs; and, one can imagine, live sports betting sponsored by Comcast.

But since we didn't elect him king, His Edness is locked in battle with Republicans to win approval to raise the personal-income tax 16 percent and bring the state $1.5 billion in brand-new money.

No talk, by the way, of lawmakers or government reducing costs, pay, pensions or perks by 16 percent.

Rendell's arguments include assertions that at 3.07 percent (it was 2.8 percent when he took office), our income tax is second- lowest in the nation, and, with his increase to 3.57 percent, would be third-lowest.

This is disingenuous on a few counts. As I've noted, not all states have a personal income tax, only six have a flat tax like Pennsylvania's, and among those with a graduated tax, 25 have a low-end rate lower than our flat rate.

And, yes, our income tax has exemptions. A family of four making $32,000, for example, pays nothing, and as family size increases, so does tax forgiveness. And Rendell argues that a personal-income-tax hike is less hurtful than, say, higher property taxes, because the unemployed, the poor and retired senior citizens don't pay it.

But this can be put another way, and is by many, if my e-mail is representative: Working people who use government services least are asked to further subsidize those who use government services most.

Ed says that average folks would pay about $260 more in taxes per year. To see what you'd pay, add up income from all sources - salary, interest, dividends, gains from property sales, gains from estates or trusts and gambling winnings - and multiply by .0357.

Republicans want no new taxes. Not on the personal-income tax. Not on cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco or natural-gas extraction, as Rendell proposes. They say: cut spending. The two sides are almost $2 billion apart.

So there's no budget and no hint of one soon.

State services continue, though state workers won't be paid until a budget is adopted. Welfare and state pension checks are not affected.

(And you don't have to write me, I understand: It's another example of working folks getting stiffed.)

How and when does it end?

"Gotta work with the Senate, gotta work with the governor, gotta get a deal," Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans said on the House floor during rambling comments while trading barbs with Republicans.

At a news conference later, GOP Senate Leader Dominic Pileggi said, "I don't think we're anywhere near close. . . . I think we have the potential to go into August, easily."

But, remember, in the Land of Low Expectations, anything is possible.

This is the same legislature under investigation for misuse of millions of dollars in public money for campaign purposes, the same legislature paying millions more to high-priced private attorneys to defend itself in that investigation and the same legislature that annually gives itself pay raises regardless of its performance.

Now it considers raising taxes and cutting programs even as it sits on $750 million in a Rainy Day Fund, $200 million in its own reserve funds and another $200 million to $400 million for grants hidden in various departments and used for lawmakers' pet projects.

Heck, maybe we should start looking for a king. *

Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.

For recent columns, go to

http://go.philly.com/baer.