Budget impasse may shutter government

? Have a 16-year-old hoping to get her first driver’s license next week? Planning a getaway at a state park? Need a birth certificate for a passport or summer cruise?

Better reschedule.

Barring a breakthrough in the state budget impasse, Pennsylvania government will screech to a halt Monday morning, forcing public campgrounds, driver’s license centers and a host of other services to shutter. It remains unclear whether casinos will be included in the shutdown, thanks to a last-minute lawsuit.

No agreement was reached late Friday.

“I can’t say there was any movement tonight, but we didn’t go backward,” state Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, said shortly after 11 p.m. after an hour-and-a-half of negotiations.

Asked whether he thought lawmakers could avert a furlough of state employees, House Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, said he believes that’s up to Gov. Ed Rendell. “It would really depend on how things go.”

Pennsylvanians angry over the potential effect of the impasse on public services called Friday for legislators and Rendell to resolve their stalemate.

“Just as we get paid to do our work here, this is what (the lawmakers) get paid for,” state worker Everald McDonald, of Elizabethtown, told The Associated Press. “Somebody’s not doing their job.”

Despite ongoing discussions, lawmakers remained at a stalemate, meaning 25,000 “nonessential” workers face furloughs at 12:01 a.m. Monday.