HARRISBURG — House Democrats in the Pennsylvania Legislature came up with a new tax proposal Thursday, backpedaling from the handshake state budget agreement their leaders made nearly two weeks ago.

The measure that passed the Rules Committee on a party-line vote would eliminate key features of that previous deal — taxes on small games of chance and certain stage performances — because of stiff resistance from rank-and-file Democrats.

Instead, the bill contains new levies on natural gas extraction and cigar and smokeless tobacco sales. It is expected to be debated and voted in the House on today.

Like the budget deal that Gov. Ed Rendell and leaders of the House Democrats and both parties in the Senate announced Sept. 18, it would legalize table games such as poker in casinos, but tax them at 34 percent, a higher rate than in competing proposals. The one-time license fee for larger casinos would be $20 million.

"We have stood firm against big tobacco, firm against big casinos," said Rep. Bob Belfanti, D-Northumberland.

The abrupt change of course is likely to cause further delays in approval of a state spending plan, more than three months after Pennsylvania's new fiscal year began. The economic downturn has left a multibillion-dollar hole in state revenues, and the politically divided Legislature has struggled for months to find a budget that can pass both chambers and get Rendell's signature.

With hundreds of millions of dollars in state subsidies held up, the private organizations and businesses that deliver many of Pennsylvania's social services to the poor are closing or laying off workers, putting off bills and borrowing money to survive.

Among the hardest hit are shelters for the homeless and victims of domestic violence, food pantries and nutrition programs, mental health counseling and child care, said Tony Ross, president and CEO of the United Way of Pennsylvania.

"We're basically three months into the fiscal year with no end in sight," Ross said.