HARRISBURG — Whether they love him or love to loathe him, Pennsylvanians won't soon forget Gov. Ed Rendell.

When he steps down Tuesday, the Democrat will have governed the nation's sixth-largest state for eight tumultuous years, achieving most of his campaign promises while avoiding any scandal in his administration or a fiscal catastrophe.

As the state's 45th chief executive, Rendell has displayed a keen intellect, a robust leadership style and an unflagging conviction that the state government can always do more to improve the quality of life for Pennsylvanians.

But he faced a divided statehouse and chafed at having to share power with Republicans who controlled at least half of the Legislature throughout his tenure and sought to tame Rendell's appetite for using government to solve the state's problems.

State budget talks were perennially rocky and protracted. Every budget he signed was late — a fact that stoked public hostility toward Harrisburg and often disrupted government operations.

Outside the Capitol, Rendell built on the national reputation he earned as the mayor who turned Philadelphia around in the 1990s and as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential campaign.

In 2008, he helped engineer Hillary Clinton's big Pennsylvania primary win, then led the call for her supporters to rally behind Barack Obama after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

Rendell remains a regular on national political TV talk shows and moonlights as a feisty postgame commentator at Philadelphia Eagles games for the Comcast cable network.

Even political foes of the outgoing governor, who turned 67 this month, agree he can be charming.

“You can't help but like Ed Rendell. If you want to go to a ballgame and have a beer, there's not a better person to do it with,” said former Sen. Robert Jubelirer, the ranking Senate Republican during Rendell's first term and a key participant in all policy negotiations.

Few Pennsylvanians have not been touched by laws that bear Rendell's signature and frame his legacy.

For example:

n Many taxes are higher, including those on personal income, cigarettes and telephone calls. But millions of homeowners are paying less than they otherwise would in school-district property taxes because slot-machine gambling revenue subsidizes a portion of their bills. Extra aid for elderly people has eliminated those taxes entirely for more than 100,000 seniors, the administration says

n Public schools are receiving billions of additional dollars that have increased basic subsidies to record levels, expanded early childhood instruction and helped modernize high-school classrooms

n Smoking is banned in most public places and workspaces, including restaurants

n Casino gambling has exploded in the state since Rendell signed bills legalizing slot machine betting in 2004 and authorizing table games last year

n Enrollment in the state-subsidized health coverage program for children, CHIP, increased by more than 50 percent to 193,000 youngsters since 2003, largely as a result of expanded eligibility standards Rendell advocated

n More than $4 billion has been invested in economic-development programs projected to create more than 300,000 jobs and retain 100,000 other jobs, according to the administration

n Most motorcyclists 21 or older may now ride legally without helmets in Pennsylvania.

n Alcoholic beverages are easier to purchase on Sundays, now that beverage distributors are permitted to sell beer by the case on that day and many more state liquor stores offer Sunday hours.

“We have achieved a great deal of the progressive agenda that I set forth,” Rendell said in a recent interview with Capitol reporters.

“He ran on a very ambitious agenda and ... he delivered on a good part of it,” agreed G. Terry Madonna, a pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster who follows state government and politics.

Rendell was the first Philadelphian in nearly 90 years to be elected as Pennsylvania's governor.

Bolstered by his huge popularity in his home city and its suburbs, he was elected in 2002 on promises that he would increase state support for public schools and reduce property taxes. In his inauguration speech, he vowed to make Pennsylvania “the comeback story of the decade.”

State spending increased by 37 percent during the Rendell years, largely for education, social services and health care.

Most of that growth occurred in his first term, following a showdown with the GOP-controlled Legislature over his first budget in 2003. Rendell withheld billions in public school subsidies for six months, provoking shutdown threats from some districts, until lawmakers approved $1 billion in new taxes to avoid a deficit and finance some of his education initiatives.

When he took office, spending totaled just over $20 billion. It surpassed $26 billion by 2006, the year he was re-elected, and totals $28 billion this year.

Rendell's elected successor, Republican state Attorney General Tom Corbett, will inherit a projected deficit of more than $4 billion.

Milestones in the tenure of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell:• May 2002: Wins Democratic gubernatorial primary, defeating state Auditor General Bob Casey by a landslide.• November 2002: Handily defeats Republican state Attorney General Mike Fisher in the conclusion of a campaign in which Rendell raised and spent more than $40 million, a record that still stands.• January 2003: Takes oath as Pennsylvania’s 45th governor.• March 2003: Signs a bare-bones state budget approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature, but strikes $4 billion in public school subsidies to use as leverage to gain support for his ambitious “Plan for a New Pennsylvania” that calls for increasing the income tax and legalizing slot machine gambling at racetracks to improve public schools and cut property taxes.• July 2003: Signs bill allowing most motorcyclists 21 and older to ride without helmets.• December 2003: Releases the school-subsidy money as part of a $1 billion deal that includes a 10 percent income-tax boost and $258 million in new education spending.• March 2004: The Philadelphia Daily News reports Rendell’s state police-chauffeured car is clocked at speeds of more than 100 mph nine times in four months. Rendell promises it would not happen again.• July 2004: Signs a bill authorizing 61,000 slot machines at 14 sites to pump $1 billion annual into property-tax cuts, after more than a year of discussions with the Legislature.• July 2004: Co-chairs the Democratic National Convention in Boston.• May 2005: Voters approve Rendell’s proposed $625 million bond issue for environmental protection and land preservation.• May 2005: Eighty percent of Pennsylvania school boards refuse to participate in the Act 72 property-tax relief program set up to distribute the slot-machine revenues because it would limit local taxing power.• July 2005: Signs a bill to give pay raises to members of the Legislature, hundreds of judges and some executive branch officials.• November 2005: Signs the repeal of the pay-raise law, days after a Supreme Court justice is ousted from the bench in election results attributed to voter backlash over the raises.• June 2006: Signs a new system for distributing slot-machine money earmarked for local property-tax relief, this time requiring school boards to participate.• November 2006: Wins election to a second four-year term, defeating former Pittsburgh Steelers star Lynn Swann, the Republican nominee, by more than 20 percentage points.• February 2007: Administration comes under fire for its slow-footed response to a winter storm that leaves hundreds of motorists stranded in their vehicles overnight along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 78.• July 2007: Furloughs thousands of state employees for one day because of a political stalemate that delays passage of the state budget. They were later reimbursed for their lost wages.• February 2008: Signs a bill to overhaul Pennsylvania’s antiquated open-records law, which was regarded as one of the nation’s weakest. The new law opens more government records to public scrutiny and requires agencies to justify any decision to keep records secret.• June 2008: Signs a bill banning smoking in most public places and workspaces.• July 2009: Forces tens of thousands of state workers to temporarily go without some or all of their paychecks on “payless paydays” during a monthlong budget impasse.• January 2010: Signs a bill allowing Pennsylvania slots casinos to expand into legalized poker, blackjack and other table games.• November 2010: Republican Tom Corbett elected as Rendell’s successor.