HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell said Wednesday he would press the Legislature to approve most of his transportation, health care and energy priorities along with a state spending plan, even if it means cutting into lawmakers' July vacations.

Rendell's comments came as the Senate approved a $27 billion budget bill and the House Democrats, who hold a one-vote majority in the chamber, worked to advance legislation to boost transportation funding, add money for alternative energy and cut health insurance costs.

The Senate also approved a bill — not Rendell's — that had the same aim of reducing hospital-borne infections. And House Republicans unveiled their own competing proposal to pump more money into the state's crumbling highways and bridges and its struggling mass-transit agencies by adding tolls to Interstates 78, 79, 80, 81 and 95.

The biggest priority in the Legislature is approving a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Legislators typically take a two-month break from Harrisburg before returning in September for a fall session.

But Rendell told an audience in the Capitol Rotunda, where he spoke with labor leaders who advocated the governor's energy initiatives, that he "will not allow us to leave here with just a budget."

Asked afterward by reporters if he would withhold his signature from a budget bill to force approval of his priorities, Rendell said, "I might not sign a budget or I might sign a budget and call a special session. I mean, there's a ton of things we can do. ... If we have to stay here till the second week in July, what's the big deal?"

Senate Republicans, who hold a solid eight-vote majority, say there are serious problems with transportation and energy proposals put forth by Rendell and the House Democrats that can't be addressed until the fall, at the earliest.

Sen. Joe Scarnati, the chamber's president pro tempore, said none of the various pitches by Democrats to raise more money for the state's highway system and mass transit agencies show exactly what the spending will accomplish.

"What are we buying here?" Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said in an interview in his Capitol office.

House Republicans acknowledged that they did not have time to compile such a spending breakdown as they rushed to prepare their plan for a floor vote as early as Thursday to keep pace with a plan being advanced by House Democrats. They also said federal approval will be required to put tolls on those five highways.

Rendell's energy centerpiece, which revolves around an $850 million program financed by a new tax on electricity use, drew numerous protests from Scarnati. Most of the money — $600 million — would be invested in advanced or clean energy companies, while the rest would help underwrite customer purchases of solar panels and energy-efficient home appliances.

Not only is that level of borrowing "outside the ballpark," but the program would allow the governor to pick and choose who gets state help, Scarnati said. It also would do nothing to help harvest the state's indigenous oil and gas reserves or help coal-fired power plants comply with pollution standards, he said.