Pennsylvania's new fiscal year began at 12:01 a.m. today without an approved 2005-06 budget in place.

While not a source of serious consequences at this juncture, the failure to reach a budget accord on time reiterates the fact that the General Assembly and Rendell administration remain so hellbent on playing partisan politics that they can't get the basic work done that they have been elected, and are being paid, to accomplish.

Passing a budget is a basic - albeit critically important - function of lawmakers, and they should feel obligated to give that duty the serious attention it deserves. The budget exercise does not have to be - and should not be - a last-minute, wee-hours-of-the-morning shambles in which it is impossible for lawmakers to know all the important details of what they are voting on.

A new budget should have been finalized by early June, to allow lawmakers adequate time to put the finishing touches on other items prior to beginning their summer recess. However, serious discussions on the $23.8 billion spending document proposed by Gov. Ed Rendell began only about two weeks ago. And, at 12:01 a.m. today, the lack of an approved budget put the state in the position of not having the power to spend tax revenue.

Lurking amid this scenario of unfinished business was the prospect that lawmakers might be rewarded generously for their budgetary ineptitude and other failings. A proposal was floating beneath the Capitol dome that would hike lawmakers' pay by $10,000 a year - taking their pay to $80,000 annually.

"A pay raise is warranted," Senate Democratic leader Robert Mellow told a Pittsburgh newspaper. "People work very hard in this job . . . and we haven't had an actual pay raise since 1995."

He conveniently ignored the General Assembly's annual cost-of-living increases that are much higher than many workers in the private sector in this state are accorded.

The proposed raise would be on top of the cost-of-living increase.

That's not bad for a job that isn't supposed to be full time.

Meanwhile, with the end-of-fiscal-year budget deadline less than two days away, ethnic remarks and a "cracker" slur had the state House in such a negative state of mind Wednesday that business in the lower chamber was suspended for more than an hour to encourage the situation to calm down. The situation was petty when stacked up against the unfinished budget business, which included weighing proposed cuts to the $4.5 billion Medicaid program.

"We are only in the middle of the game," said House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese of Greene County on Wednesday, referring to the budget package. "The ninth inning will come sometime on Sunday."

"There's still a ways to go," said Sen. Robert C. Jubelirer, R-Blair, Senate president pro tempore.

Even without a completed budget, the state is authorized to continue tax collections - it shouldn't be, as an incentive to get the budget completed on time - and some items will continue to be funded under federal labor laws, state constitutional provisions and state court orders. They include welfare payments to families with dependent children.

Regardless, Pennsylvania's budget process remains a vehicle in need of a tune-up by right-thinking leaders of both parties. But don't expect to see one soon, even if that excessive, shameful $10,000 increase gains approval.