PROVIDENCE — The Senate approved a $7.8-billion state budget Friday night, sending the tax-and-spending bill for the budget year that begins Wednesday to the governor’s desk and ending a 24-hour standoff.

Forced to fill the largest revenue shortfall in decades, lawmakers voted 34 to 2 to approve a budget that raises Rhode Island’s gas tax by 2 cents per gallon, trims the pension benefits of thousands of teachers and state workers, and cuts tens of millions of dollars from cash-strapped cities and towns. The House of Representatives had endorsed the plan almost two days earlier.

“The budget before us is one that truly calls for a sharing of pain and a sharing of sacrifice,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel DaPonte said before the vote.

But it was a budget that could have been much worse for taxpayers and the tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders who rely on government programs.

Buoyed by $226.5 million in federal stimulus dollars, lawmakers ultimately decided to reverse looming cuts to prescription drug programs for seniors, dental coverage for the poor, and subsidized health care for uninsured pregnant women. They also avoided increases in income or sales taxes, and rejected specific proposals to increase taxes on alcohol and begin taxing services such as car repairs.

Governor Carcieri refused to say whether he would veto the spending plan that boosts overall spending by nearly $900 million, or nearly 13 percent, compared with the current-year budget.

“The governor is not expected to decide before Monday,” spokeswoman Amy Kempe said Friday night.

But Carcieri’s options will be limited.

Under normal circumstances, Carcieri could allow the budget bill — which repeals preferential tax treatment of capital gains and rejects his push to eliminate the corporate income tax — to become law without his signature. That’s exactly what he did with the supplemental budget in April, a symbolic protest to a handful of concerns.

speoples@projo.com