HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania today began the 2009-10 fiscal year with no budget in place and a curtailed authority to spend money.

The first day of the new fiscal year is today, and the partisan stalemate in Harrisburg appears to be entrenched.

Budget talks are particularly difficult this year because Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers are grappling with a multibillion-dollar deficit brought on by the recession. High-level talks Monday and Tuesday yielded no substantial progress.

Rendell, a Democrat, is proposing more than $2 billion in higher taxes, including a three-year, 16 percent jump in the personal income tax.

Republicans who control the Senate oppose any tax increase and are focused on spending cuts that line up with the state's lackluster tax collections.

No deal is in sight, but Rendell said Pennsylvania residents won't notice a drop-off in state services for now.

By The Associated Press