AUGUSTA – Budget bargainers split at the State House on Saturday, disagreeing on options for handling Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal for offsetting a $109 million shortfall.

Democrats and Republicans parted ways to prepare separate sets of revisions to the Baldacci package after Democrats demanded Maine’s fledgling Dirigo Health program be declared off-limits for budget trimmers and Republicans insisted that all options remain on the negotiating table.

Legislative analysts at the Office of Fiscal and Program Review said Sunday that Republicans and Democrats on the Appropriations Committee are scheduled to reconvene at 3 p.m. today to present competing budget proposals.

Baldacci, who had been pushing for a bipartisan deal by the end of the weekend, said he stood with his Democratic allies in being unwilling to touch funding earmarked to start up the state’s new health coverage program.

“The Dirigo money is off the table,” he said after Appropriations Committee members divided along party lines.

Baldacci reiterated that he was prepared to put into effect immediately some Medicaid cutbacks, using administrative authority for emergency rulemaking.

“I’ve met with leadership. I’ve been very plain about getting this done or we’ll move ahead on Monday,” he said.

Despite the partisan schism, however, consultations were continuing. Legislative analysts were settling in for a full weekend and groups of Democrats and Republicans shuttled in and out of Baldacci’s office.

House Speaker Patrick Colwell, D-Gardiner, told the ranking GOP members of the Appropriations Committee they would probably be talking.

Public hearings earlier this month on the Baldacci package elicited sharp criticism from Medicaid beneficiaries and health care providers who are reimbursed for services to low-income people through the Medicaid program.

Among provisions that subsequently drew opposition from lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee were proposed reductions in reimbursements to pharmacists and proposed cuts in support levels for participants in a drugs for the elderly program.

Another disputed item was a provision to cut $8.5 million in hospital reimbursement rates.

“The deadline that’s before us is a rather artificial one,” Rep. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, said Saturday just before the Appropriations panel broke up.

A party-line split, once made formal by a committee vote, would clear the way for majority Democrats to muscle their budget revisions through the Legislature. A failure to obtain some Republican support, however, could block some elements of a new budget amendment from taking effect for 90 days.

Republican Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, echoed Rosen in suggesting that Appropriations Committee talks had only scratched the surface.

“I don’t think we really got to the point of even acting like negotiators,” he told his colleagues.

The panel’s House chairman, Democratic Rep. Joseph Brannigan of Portland, said he saw no reason to prolong discussions without agreement on the status of Dirigo Health funding.

“If not, we might as well go on our own ways,” he said.

NEWS reporter A.J. Higgins contributed to this story.