There's no way any Pennsylvania lawmaker or Gov. Ed Rendell should be getting paychecks before all state workers caught up in the 2009-10 budget morass have received their full pay for days already worked.

Actually, considering the abysmal performance of the governor and lawmakers during the ongoing budget dispute, none of them deserve any pay whatsoever for the days since July 1 — and that should continue until a final budget is in place.

Enacting a new — complete — budget is one of the most basic responsibilities of the General Assembly and governor. If they can't accomplish that task by the deadline set by the state constitution, they deserve to forfeit pay and their per diem allowances for all days beyond the deadline, which is June 30.

The important word is "forfeit." For them, retroactivity shouldn't apply.

Of course that won't happen, but it's reasonable to make that point amid the reality that the state is operating with only a partial budget, despite more than a month having passed since the budget deadline. That partial fiscal package is aimed in big part at relieving the financial pressure for about 77,000 state workers who have had their pay delayed due to the budget impasse.

That pay delay has forced some state workers to apply for food stamps and loans, or to obtain food from food banks.

It's wrong that those workers were victims of a situation over which they have had no control, and only the workers themselves know if or how much not being paid on time has impacted them, or will continue to impact them, and their ongoing financial obligations.

State taxpayers have cause for anger over the ongoing, terrible budget performance by those they've elected, but beyond that they have grounds for a strong rebuke of House Democrats.

Even though state workers would have to wait about a week after Rendell signed the partial budget for their pay to begin flowing again, House Democrats had the audacity to accept their paychecks immediately upon passing the budget that Rendell slashed by way of his veto power.

In addition to providing for the paying of state workers, the partial spending plan has restored funding for such things as public safety and state parks — as well as full funding for the governor's office, which, all considered, isn't deserved.

However, Rendell can't be faulted for that executive office funding from the standpoint of keeping his office on a level playing field with the General Assembly, which, technically, could have continued to pay its members without interruption.

The General Assembly had the flexibility not to interrupt its members' pay because the Legislature has a multimillion-dollar reserve fund to finance its operations in the case of a budget impasse in which a governor cuts off its funding, as Rendell did under his veto of the temporary spending plan.

Lawmakers understood the potential public relations fallout if they had tapped that fund for themselves while average state workers were denied their pay, but House Demo-crats were premature in the way that their pay was resumed.

The $27.3 billion budget — chopped to $11 billion by way of Rendell vetoes — will give the state temporary flexibility to continue to operate until a final budget is enacted. But state government is wrong in being consumed in a new fiscal year with work that should have been completed before the end of last fiscal year.

Neither state services nor local-level services financed by the state should have to operate with uncertainty as a result of Harrisburg-entrenched partisanship. Lawmakers and the governor were elected to compromise, not hold hostages, like the 77,000 state workers have been for weeks.

House Democrats' quick grab for their paychecks was wrong, but Republicans in the House and Senate who will wait for their pay until other workers are paid aren't looking much better. They continue to be party to a budget fight that should have been settled more than a month ago.

Both political parties are to blame for the budget morass that remains and the impact that that stalemate is having across the state. Voters should remember this year's budget crisis during next year's elections.

Voters should proclaim, by way of their ballots, "Enough!"