HARRISBURG — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf poured cold water on leading ideas from Republican lawmakers Wednesday to patch up the state’s deficit-wracked finances as they wrestle with the state’s biggest cash shortfall since the recession.

Wolf’s comments came as top Republican lawmakers try to assemble a budget plan without a tax increase and negotiate a spending plan in private that could require belt-tightening and cuts across state agencies and services.

Time is ticking down: The state government’s new fiscal year starts July 1.

Speaking to reporters, Wolf avoided saying that he outright opposes two key Republican ideas: borrowing against future state revenue and legalizing gambling on slot machine-style games in thousands of bars, truck stops and other locations.

Rather, he suggested that such ideas concern him.

Wolf is counting on an extra $250 million in cash from new forms of gambling, but his own Department of Revenue has told lawmakers that allowing gambling in so many new locations would inflict losses on revenue the state gets from the Pennsylvania Lottery and licensed casinos. Just setting up regulatory systems for gambling in bars could take a year or more, the department told lawmakers.

“I want real revenue, and I want net revenue,” Wolf told reporters after appearing at an unrelated public event in the Capitol. “I don’t want anything that we do in gaming or gambling to interfere with the revenues that are already in place. If it just cannibalizes and takes from one bucket called gambling to another, the commonwealth isn’t doing anything more than it has in the past.”

Gambling in bars passed the House earlier this month with bipartisan support, and House Republican leaders have brought it to budget negotiations.

In any case, the Senate has not shown that it would support such a large gambling expansion. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, on Wednesday said such a move could be bigger than Pennsylvania’s legalization of casinos.