HARRISBURG — When politics hold up passage of Pennsylvania's state budget past the July 1 deadline — an annual occurrence for six years running — the governor must choose between furloughing thousands of state employees or requiring them to work without pay until a budget is enacted, a Commonwealth Court judge has ruled.

Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt rejected arguments by state-employee unions that had sued to block Gov. Ed Rendell's contingency plan to furlough about 25,000 non-critical employees this year if an impasse pushed the budget past July 1. The unions contended that workers could continue to be paid by tapping unappropriated funds in the state treasury during budget negotiations between the governor and the Legislature.

Leavitt said the state constitution bars the expenditure of unappropriated money. She also rejected the suggestion that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires workers to be paid on time, trumps the constitution.

"Congress did not intend the FLSA to authorize public employers to raid their treasuries illegally any more than it intended that private employers could rob banks, whenever necessary to make payroll on time," she wrote.

At the same time, Leavitt rejected the administration's request that the court endorse Rendell's plan, which allows only employees deemed "critical" to be paid with unappropriated funds — an approach that the administration said minimizes any constitutional violation.

"An order that sanctions a constitutional violation is beyond the power of this court to grant," she said.

No furloughs were ordered this year because a budget deal was struck just before July 1, even though legislative approval of the spending plan did not come until several days later.