This nearly annual stalemate over the state budget is getting stale.

Here's what we wrote July 1, 2008:

"In what is becoming a trend: Another fiscal year is set to begin with no state budget in place."

Even though some of the players have changed, they still seem to be merely cutting and pasting their way through June.

On Wednesday, after weeks of threatening to pull the plug on social service agencies that serve the poor, disabled and elderly, Gov. Pat Quinn backtracked and said he didn't really want to do that.

Last year, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich publicly threatened to cut funding for 4-H programs and then reversed course just four days later. He did the same thing earlier in his audacious tenure, when he threatened to close prisons in Vandalia, Pontiac and Stateville.

For now, millions of Illinoisans who rely on state services must watch the annual debacle unfold again and worry.

The House returns to the Capitol on Monday. The Senate comes back Tuesday.

The new fiscal year begins Wednesday.

"I think we're inching toward a balanced budget," Quinn said last week.

Hmmm. That seems awfully familiar.

Yep, it was during a special legislative session last year.

"Let's just keeping inching forward," Blagojevich said at the time.

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SLASHING AND BURNING: To help balance the budget, Quinn wants to force state workers to take 12 furlough days. Ouch.

He also is talking about a billion dollars in unspecified administrative cuts, including 2,200 layoffs, in order to help close the state's budget gap.

A complete list of those possible cuts was not available, which makes us wonder just how serious Quinn might be.

But, just so you know, Quinn emphasized last week the cuts would be serious.

"This is not a piddly-diddly exercise," Quinn said.

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SENATE DEMOCRATS: Democrats who control the Senate have been mostly sitting on the sidelines in recent weeks, mainly because, unlike their counterparts in the House, they were able to muster enough votes to approve a massive income and services tax hike at the end of May.

"We have stepped up to the plate," Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said Tuesday.

Indeed, Cullerton is correct.

However, in legislative baseball parlance, their vote on a tax hike that is destined to go nowhere in the House was the equivalent of hitting a weak grounder back to the pitcher.

Good job, guys and gals. Way to go. Maybe you can give each other high fives.

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MORE GOP JOCKEYING: Given the problems Democrats are having in governing the state, it makes sense that a lot of Republicans smell blood in the water.

Thus far, no fewer than seven Republicans say they are considering a bid for chief executive.

They include state Sens. Bill Brady of Bloomington, Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale and Matt Murphy of Palatine, as well as DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, Hinsdale resident Adam Andrzejewski, political consultant Dan Proft and DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett.

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THE UNDERCARD: And what would be a race for governor without an accompanying battle for the lieutenant governor's spot?

A Rockford-area lawmaker is putting his hat in the ring to run for the post.

State Rep. Dave Winters, R-Shirland, was poised to make an announcement last week but backed off at the last minute when he canceled a news conference.

If he makes the plunge, he would join Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole and Randy White of Hancock County as likely candidates for the GOP nomination.

Cole, who is still in the formative stages of a statewide run, visited the Senate chambers Wednesday as a guest of state Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville.

In what could be a sign of a ticket in the making, Cole had an extended conversation with Dillard.

Both Dillard and Cole have something in common beyond their GOP roots. Dillard served in the Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar administrations, while Cole served in George Ryan's administration.

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SHOUT OUT TO THE PALMETTO STATE: Congratulations to my in-laws, Harry and Mary Miller.

The former Carbondale residents need no longer feel left out when it comes to having a bizarre governor.

After watching the behavior of Rod Blagojevich from their home in South Carolina for these past few years, the Millers were recently treated to a gubernatorial unraveling of their own, via the hole digging, Argentina-visiting adulterer Mark Sanford.

Like Blagojevich, Sanford is a former congressman who had once envisioned himself fodder for the White House.

Welcome to the club, Millers.

kurt.erickson@lee.net|217-789-0865