AUGUSTA – Majority Democrats in the Maine House of Representatives stood firm Friday, sending their budget-balancing plan back to the Senate where a different version had won preliminary approval.

That’s where the debate stalled.

Unable to hold together their 18-17 Senate edge, Democrats called off further floor action until Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, said the preferred approach for most Democrats would have been for the Senate to back off its differences and go along with the House.

“Frankly, we didn’t have enough votes to do that,” Mitchell said.

Since Wednesday evening, the House and Senate have been debating proposals for offsetting a $190 million shortfall in Maine’s $6.3 billion two-year General Fund budget. Democratic legislative leaders have been aiming to pass something before April 1 to take advantage of procedural advantages for the majority party and to head off unilateral action to slow state spending by Gov. John Baldacci.

Pivotal in the final outcome will be Democratic Sen. John Nutting of Leeds, who for months has been urging a variety of personnel cuts around state government.

Democrats in general have focused on what they say has been Republican unwillingness to maintain health care coverage for some 22,000 Mainers, some of whom are the parents of children in the federally supported State Children’s Health Insurance Program and others who are childless adults within certain income guidelines.

Republicans have opposed a Democratic plan to raise about $9 million through the expedited sale of unclaimed property.

Both parties appear willing to accept a $34.1 million reduction in state aid to local schools advanced by Baldacci.

An alternative Senate measure that has drawn some bipartisan support would reduce aid for low-income childless adults and scrap the accelerated unclaimed property sale.

“It appears they don’t have the votes to do the majority budget,” Senate Minority Leader Carol Weston, R-Montville, said late Friday afternoon after the Senate was abruptly adjourned. “The governor’s injecting himself, I think, at this point.”

Gubernatorial aides said Friday that Baldacci, a Democrat, did not welcome a Democratic inclusion of a hospital tax-and-match provision in the House-endorsed budget package.

The provision would adjust the base year of a tax on net hospital revenue to raise $11 million that could be used to offset a proposed reduction in reimbursements for hospital-based physicians.

Short of winning two-thirds majorities in both chambers, which would allow program reductions to take effect right away, lawmakers have to act by the end of Monday to ensure a revised state spending plan is in place by June 30 – the last day of the current fiscal year.

If lawmakers don’t meet Monday’s deadline, the governor is expected to take emergency action to reduce expenditures.

Lawmakers and administration officials agree that such action, because of limits on what a governor can do himself, could affect some areas of government more drastically than a plan approved by the Legislature.

“The governor can only cut services,” said Rep. Jeremy Fischer, D-Presque Isle, the House chairman of the Appropriations Committee.