The Senate chamber was packed Monday night as lawmakers edged toward a final vote on a plan to plug an almost $200 million hole in the state budget. After weeks of marathon negotiations, lawmakers were facing a midnight deadline for a budget that would make painful cuts to social services, eliminate state jobs and reduce spending on schools. Spectators crowded into the gallery perched above the senators' seats -- and had to be reminded not to lean over the railing or risk falling. Below on the Senate floor, the mood was tense as the debate over the supplemental budget drew to an acrimonious, partisan close.

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, said the political machinations of the last few days -- primarily over the fate of a government spending watchdog agency -- were "insulting to me personally ... and a very poor way to be ending this session."

Sen. John Martin, the longtime Democratic lawmaker from Eagle Lake in Aroostook County, snapped back that there was a reason why legislators had been unable to fashion a bipartisan budget: "Don't look at us, look at your leadership."

One senator accused his Democratic colleagues of lying, and a Republican senator complained about the "shenanigans" and "hallway talk" that Democrats had kept secret from Republicans. Senate President Beth Edmonds more than once spoke sharply to various senate members, accentuating her frustration with the crack of her gavel.

The partisan Monday night scene was vintage Statehouse politics, with lawmakers playing to their constituencies. But before the acrimony broke out in the Senate late last week over a small portion of the spending bill, the negotiations that produced the budget had been bipartisan and positive. Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, told the Senate as they prepared to vote that "98 percent of this budget reflects bipartisan agreement reached in an atmosphere of respect, openness and good will by the Appropriations Committee."

Ultimately, the grandstanding ended and the Senate voted. Divided along party lines, majority Democrats prevailed and passed the supplemental budget that closed an almost $200 million shortfall in the state's $6.3 billion, two-year budget.

The House, with less acrimony and more comity, then passed the legislation and after a few more procedural votes, Gov. John Baldacci had put his signature to the bill by the midnight deadline.

Let us first note what this bill is not: It is not the state budget. That's a $6.3 billion document. This was a $190 million fix to make up for the fact that the state had adopted a budget the previous year that spent more money than it had coming in.

Thus, this fix for approximately three percent of the state budget was not the moment or opportunity to make fundamental changes in how the state spends taxpayer money. As it was, lawmakers faced a major challenge to business-as-usual in the Statehouse when the governor revealed his plan for patching the budget hole. That plan included big cuts to spending on social and health-related programs, from domestic violence prevention to insurance coverage for poor Mainers, as well as substantial cuts to higher education.

Appropriations committee members made a concerted effort to find other ways to address the budget hole. They succeeded in blunting the Baldacci cuts and in fact reinstated spending for several crucial services, including community mental health programs. And they accomplished this without increasing taxes or dipping into the state's rainy day fund. They did their job, and they did it well.

The last-minute conflict between Democrats and Republicans was largely over the future of the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, which some Democrats proposed gutting. That raised the ire of Republicans and some Democrats; by Monday night, the Democrats had backed down and promised to restore the office to full strength.

The Legislature's fiscal arm-wrestling of the last few weeks is attributable to lower revenue than expected. That, in turn, is largely the result of a national economic downtown that's hitting many states. This year also brought significant cuts in federal health care dollars that used to flow to the states. As a result, some states are in even worse shape than Maine. According to the New York Times, Michigan is shutting down about 20 state campgrounds; New Jersey is laying off state workers; poor women in Illinois' Cook County no longer can get free mammograms.

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Every Legislature must deal with a supplemental budget during the second year of its two-year term. This was a particularly difficult one. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree called it "the most painful budget I have seen in my six years" in the Legislature.

There's no reason to believe that future budgets -- supplemental or otherwise -- will be any easier. Federal funds for states will likely continue to diminish, as will state tax revenues in the immediate future. Costs to run state government and its programs, however, are going up -- from employee health insurance to heating oil to how much lenders may charge for borrowing money.

The only way to avoid such painful and chaotic deliberations yet again is for the state's leaders to rein in spending. That, too, will be painful -- but pain that is planned-for allows those who will experience it to make provisions for dealing with it.

That, however, will take serious leadership. It is, sadly, easier for lawmakers to make cuts when they are under the gun.

Yet Appropriations Committee members exercised strong and bipartisan leadership crafting this supplemental budget. Even better would be to make planned, thoughtful budget cuts as well as strategic investments when the Legislature is not under the gun.