HARRISBURG — Furloughs for thousands of state workers, a shutdown of casinos and parks, and severely curtailed state government services are just two days away after budget negotiators ended Friday with no deal in sight.

Even signs of progress were hard to find; the best they could say is that at least the talks will continue.

The furlough and shutdown will occur at 12:01 a.m. Monday without a deal in place, because when the fiscal year ended last Saturday, the state lost authority to spend money on services that are not critical to health, safety or welfare.

Ranking members of both parties in the narrowly divided legislature, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's budget negotiators and their aides worked for hours behind closed doors in the Capitol before wrapping up as midnight approached.

"I can't say there was any movement tonight," Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, said shrugging. "We didn't go backward."

Republicans said they continue to be frustrated at the scope of Rendell's proposals — an ambitious agenda that they said continues to grow.

"Every time you get close, he wants something new," said Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia.

Greg Fajt, Rendell's chief of staff, said he remained upbeat about the prospect for a settlement.

"Everyone at the table's an honorable person," he said. "We had great dialogue, and we're going to continue to talk."

While the stalemate persisted, some of the action moved to the courts:

Casino companies filed a Commonwealth Court lawsuit Friday to avoid being shut down. Two Republican state senators asked the same court to enforce subpoenas issued to two of Rendell's aides for information about the casino shutdown.

And, Pennsylvania's largest state workers' union said it planned to sue on Saturday to block the furloughs.

David Fillman, executive director of Council 13, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the union is challenging the legality of dividing most state workers' jobs into "critical" and "non-critical" classifications.

Those in the non-critical group are targeted for furloughs, while those performing critical functions will work and be paid as usual.

"It gets into not only are (the classifications) unfair, but the issue of why can't we make everybody a critical classification and continue the operations of the commonwealth," said Fillman, whose union represents 45,000 state employees, including 16,000 who may be furloughed.

Sen. Joe Scarnati of Jefferson County, the Senate's top-ranking Republican, called the furloughs "totally unnecessary."

"Go knock on the governor's mansion Monday and see if he's furloughed the maid, the butler and the chef," Scarnati said.