HARRISBURG — State budget talks have degenerated from showdown to stalemate, and the prospect for state workers' furloughs makes meltdown a real possibility.

The various players have spent a lot of energy recently trying to deflect blame away from themselves, but the fact is that no one can really predict how the public will assign responsibility if the impasse becomes protracted.

"At the end of the day, they're both under a lot of pressure — both sides of the Legislature," said Mike Barley, a spokesman for the Republican State Committee. "I really don't know how it's going to go. It's kind of wide open."

The state fiscal year ended Saturday without a 2007-08 spending plan in place. There was little progress in the negotiations Wednesday, and talks over the past several days have not yielded a breakthrough. Top House Democrats met with Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi on Tuesday, and more face-to-face leadership talks were scheduled for today.

The state could send more than 26,000 workers home without pay starting Monday, and a long list of services would be affected.

The central sticking point has been Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's insistence that the Legislature address a range of issues not directly related to the budget, while Senate Republicans prefer to pass a pared-down budget and push back consideration of Rendell's energy, health care and transportation initiatives.

"These are bold ideas, there's no doubt about that," said Johnna Pro, spokeswoman for Rep. Dwight Evans, the Philadelphia Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. "But the governor was elected by 61 percent of the voters. They expect bold ideas, they want bold ideas, they deserve bold ideas."

Pileggi, R-Delaware, said he was encouraged by a focus in recent negotiations on the core budget. The Senate has called its members back to Harrisburg for sessions today, Friday and Saturday.

"Maybe it's optimism that we'll be able to work through some sort of resolution of this impasse," Pileggi said Wednesday afternoon. In at least one respect, the talks are moving backward, with new questions arising about a multibillion dollar transit and highways agreement that had appeared very close last weekend.

"I think the issues that have been raised can be worked through, but the longer that process remains open, the more time there is for additional ideas and concerns to be raised," Pileggi said.

Statehouse politicians can expect the public to begin paying much more attention soon, said political analyst Terry Madonna, a Franklin & Marshall College professor.

"Once you can't get a license through PennDOT, services are curtailed, museums are closed, those are things then that voters will react to," Madonna said. "I think both the Legislature and the governor will take a beating on it, but who gets blamed the most, I don't know."

Looming over the budget negotiations are ever-present anxieties over the next election. Rendell has more than three years left in his second and final term, while many state lawmakers will face primary challengers in less than a year.

Most Democrats will be happy to campaign on the agenda Rendell is currently pushing, while Republicans who acquiesce in any sort of tax increase would leave themselves open to a challenge from within the party.

"There's enormous political pressure on the Senate Republicans not to cave here," Madonna said. "And we'll see. In the past, I think, they would have probably given the governor at least the request on energy."

Rendell is "radically misinterpreting the election results" by proposing new taxes and borrowing, said Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny. "It's overreaching, way overreaching. It's arrogant. He is not thinking about the average Pennsylvania taxpayer, and frankly, I think he's pumping himself up for some national agenda."