With less than two weeks until the end of Pennsylvania's current fiscal year, it appears that the General Assembly and Rendell administration finally are getting serious about reaching an accord on a 2005-06 budget. Too bad they weren't awakened to such urgency weeks ago.

Gov. Ed Rendell met last Monday with legislative leaders for the first time since he unveiled his budget proposal in February. On Tuesday, the House voted 194-0 to reject Rendell's proposal for cutting Medicaid benefits, which had been a big component of the governor's attempt to rein in state spending.

Whether any of what has occurred can actually be construed as real progress is questionable, but at least inaction is not continuing on center stage.

The governor's Medicaid plan had projected $500 million in savings through a range of cuts that included limiting reimbursements to medical providers and hospitals. It also would have limited coverage for Medicaid's sickest enrollees to two hospitalizations per year and six monthly drug prescriptions.

Rendell said Monday there were options for reducing the cuts in his initial Medicaid proposal, including $100 million in surplus revenue that the governor's budget did not envision when it was introduced.

Substantially cutting the program that provides health care for 1.8 million poor and disabled state residents is a political hot potato with which Democratic and Republic lawmakers - and the governor - would rather not have to deal. While some scaleback might be inevitable, Tuesday's vote cemented the fact that Medicaid recipients will not be subjected to the degree of cuts that the governor had initially regarded as necessary.

That means other programs might have to face spending constraints to keep Medicaid at the funding level that lawmakers decree.

Tuesday's unanimous vote didn't eliminate the fact that Medicaid is the state's fastest-rising expense; a total of $4.5 billion - nearly one-fifth - of Rendell's $23.8 billion proposed budget is allocated for that purpose. And, it is estimated that growth in Medicaid will outstrip state tax revenue by $1 billion in each of the next five years - not a happy prospect for future state budget exercises or taxpayers.

Rendell was on target when he said "there's a lot of pain on the Medicaid side," a program that provides health care for one in seven Pennsylvania residents.

Hidden amid the current Medicaid discussion is the troubling fact that lawmakers have again fallen into the trap of handling the state budget as a last-minute exercise. Only time will expose what "surprises" the finished product will contain.

It is not good government when lawmakers cast votes without first having the time to read and digest what they are voting on. But with only days until the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, a considerable amount of that is inevitable.

No doubt much behind-the-scenes work is under way. But what is being done now should have been done weeks ago, without the end-of-year pressure that will only become more intense with each passing day that an approved spending plan is not in place.