HARRISBURG - A House Republican effort to plug a $2 billion hole in the state budget without raising taxes stalled after a lengthy closed-door GOP caucus Saturday, leaving the Pennsylvania Legislature no closer to fully funding the spending plan it passed earlier this month.

House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, sent lawmakers home in late afternoon without movement on a proposal to combine $1.5 billion in borrowing with hundreds of millions drawn from off-budget programs, an approach designed to avoid imposing higher taxes.Turzai said afterward that his members had rejected "in significant fashion" a plan to leverage annual payments from a 1998 multistate settlement with tobacco companies to borrow enough money to cover a massive deficit in state finances.He said House GOP members did not want to "bail out" the Senate or Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.Some Republican members wanted a severance tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production, or other forms of revenue that will be available in future years.Senate Republican spokesman Drew Crompton said the GOP-majority chamber will return to session in the coming week to work on a funding plan, as well as other elements in the $32 billion budget package that have not been completed.Turzai said it was up to the Senate to send over a tax bill, raising the prospect that his anti-tax caucus may eventually have to decide whether to permit a floor vote on a revenue bill that many of its members oppose.Wolf let the spending part of the budget take effect nearly two weeks ago without his signature.The governor has said he could support borrowing - if it is accompanied by enough recurring tax revenue to put the state on a path to fiscal solvency.House members were told to be available to return to the Capitol on six hours' notice.