PROVIDENCE - As the clock approached midnight last night, a 10-hour House budget debate erupted into a bitter shouting match that saw the House majority leader publicly accuse the Republican governor of playing dirty politics behind the scenes to try to deprive the Democrats of the two-thirds majority they needed to pass the budget.

"You don't have the votes. You don't have the votes," cried House Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich, as the Democrats appeared to be stalling for time.

"Reprehensible behavior," said House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, accusing Republican Governor Carcieri of making offers, behind the scenes, to remove the threat of GOP opposition from any Democrat who voted against the budget.

"Offering to get opponents out of the race for a vote against this budget," shouted Fox, D-Providence. "Truly reprehensible behavior."

"What is going on tonight in this State House is absolutely, unequivocally despicable. The governor of the State of Rhode Island . . . who is chairman of the Republican Party, with other Democratic members -- and we'll leave them nameless, Representative [David] Caprio -- calling Democratic members into his chamber and offering to get Republican opponents out of the race for a vote against this budget.'

"I call on the state police to immediately come in and investigate," demanded House Majority Whip Charlene Lima. By 12:20 a.m., the governor had still not responded to the allegations.

But shortly after midnight, Rep. Robert Flaherty -- absent for the earlier votes -- came into the chamber, and the speaker called for a vote, which at 49-to-21 left some doubt if the House had, indeed, mustered the two-thirds approval the Constitution requires of all members elected to the chamber for passage of a spending bill.

Arguing the majority was one short of the 50 needed to pass the big spending bill in the 75-member House, Watson demanded the budget be recommitted to a House committee. But Murphy told Watson that might be his interpretation, "not ours."

And there the debate stood when the House adjourned at 12:25 a.m., with the budget headed for the Senate.

Some of the key points of battle earlier in the day were over the distribution of slot machine revenues, new Assembly controls over the higher-education budget and whether to prevent residents from renewing their driver's licenses if they owe taxes.

But other potentially controversial items, such as a 1-percentage-point increase in the hotel tax, a 26-cent monthly surcharge on cell phones, and the reduction in tax breaks available for special local "enterprise zones," passed with some opposition but little debate.

Also quickly approved for the fiscal year that starts July 1: a 75-cent hike in the cigarette tax, to $2.46 per pack, making it the highest in the nation, according to two national legislative associations. Budget analysts have said the price of an average brand-name pack of cigarettes would rise to $6.10.

Local school aid, as expected, was essentially level-funded. But lawmakers also agreed to set up a study commission to look at career and technical education, and an "advisory council on school finances" to develop new accounting standards for school districts.

The greyhound owners' share of video slot revenues, estimated to be $11 million next year, was eliminated after a bitter fight in which Republican members accused Democrats of playing a shell game by shifting the money to Lincoln Park's owners.

The track will get about $6 million of the money that would have been earmarked for greyhounds, with $4.5 million going to the state and $400,000 going to the Town of Lincoln.

Rep. Nicholas Gorham, R-Coventry, said the legislators were sending the extra money to track owners "with a wink, knowing where it is going to go."

"These dogs are being well fed in this budget. We all know that. To truly eliminate the subsidy, we need to do more," echoed House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson, R-East Greenwich.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino argued that the money would encourage Lincoln Park to make a major investment in its facility and further expand the number of slot machines there.

Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, R-Warwick, countered that the expansion had not happened yet "because we are holding a casino over their head," and because of pending criminal charges against Lincoln Park's former executives.

Track officials announced earlier in the day that they had reached an agreement with the Rhode Island Greyhound Owners Association that will allow the live greyhound racing to continue.

Lincoln Park Spokesman Michael F. Trainor would not elaborate on what he described as "an agreement in principle," calling the terms private. The greyhound association declined comment.

Through a spokesman, BLB Investors LLC, the group seeking to buy Lincoln Park and its British parent company Wembley PLC, said the company would live with any agreement.

The greyhound debate turned ugly when Rep. William San Bento Jr., D-Pawtucket, started telling Watson about the jobs that dog racing creates.

"I will debate you and little Nicky as long as you want," San Bento said, in an apparent reference to Gorham.

Watson shouted back: "Talk about slander! Who makes up nicknames for you?"

"Representative Watson, do your best," San Bento challenged.

Gorham's attempt to give all of the greyhound money to local school districts failed. Trillo was also unsuccessful in an attempt to redirect $1 million of Lincoln Park's money to the Samuel Slater Technology Fund, a program for investing in high-technology companies.

The lawmakers tangled for close to an hour late last night over the 11th-hour inclusion, in the budget, of Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams' bid to exclude the courts -- and their $84 million budget from the personnel, purchasing and budget-review rules that apply to the rest of state government. In the end, it passed 47-22.

Republicans and a number of non-lawyers in the chamber protested the move.

But proponents, including House Majority Leader Fox called the move the next logical extension of the "separation of powers" drive to remove lawmakers from boards and commissions across state government.

"I think we can trust the judiciary, through the court administrator and the chief justice to make those appropriate purchases," he said.

Still, Rep. Victor Moffitt, R-Coventry, asked: "Separation of powers hasn't even been passed. Why can't we do this next year?"

Legislators also went forward with a plan to eliminate the ability of the Board of Governors for Higher Education to reallocate money from one college to another. House leaders said the move will give them more oversight of the higher-education budget.

Rep. David A. Caprio, D-Narragansett, whose father is the board's chairman, accused the legislature of micromanaging.

"It's not oversight. It's a hostile takeover," he said.

An effort by Rep. Matthew J. McHugh, D-South Kingstown, to keep the law as is failed, 25-46; the new language was adopted by a vote of 50-21.

The budget would include the equivalent of 16,222 state jobs, up 603 from this year and 463 more than the figure recommended by the governor. Among the add-ons: 417.2 new jobs in higher education "associated with additional federal and private research grants and other third party funds" the colleges expect to receive.

Also, 13 jobs associated with the expansion of state nursing-education programs; a new health insurance commissioner and two assistants; six foreign-language interpreters for the courts; and a new Superior Court drug-court magistrate.

Asked how the drug magistrate's job evolved, court spokeswoman Dyana Koelsch said the judiciary would be happy to have it, and had a $400,000 federal Edward Byrne Memorial Grant to help pay for it.

As to how it got into the state budget, "I guess you would have to ask Representative Costantino," said Koelsch. "The article asking for the magistrate was not submitted at the request of the courts . . . Putting it there just wasn't one of our legislative priorities this year."

Costantino said Superior Court Presiding Justice Joseph F. Rogers Jr. requested the position, and sent the House fiscal office language to create it.

The budget restores two bond items Governor Carcieri had sought to put on the ballot in November: $50 million to build a biotechnology center at the University of Rhode Island and $48 million for improvements at the Quonset Point Davisville Industrial Park. It also puts into the budget, for the first time, $500,000 for the URI research vessel Endeavor.

Overall, voters will be asked to approve more than $392 million in bonds this November, up $100 million from what the House Finance Committee recommended a week ago.

Other proposals disappeared, among them a definition of a state employee proposed by the governor to keep other groups from making the same claims to state-employee status and benefits as those made by home day care providers.

Costantino had the budget article returned to his committee, without explanation, as his opening move of the day's debate.

Hissed Watson to a reporter: "They just killed the budget!"

Costantino said later that House leaders were concerned the language could affect the pending daycare case, which has moved from the Labor Relations Board to Superior Court.

"I just decided, let's not do anything and hopefully that [court] decision will figure it all out," he said.

Also removed: language that would have allowed a town to levy a supplemental property tax if its state aid was not the amount expected; a moratorium on the tax credit program for rehabilitating historic buildings; and a proposed fee hike for assisted-living centers.

Costantino agreed, unexpectedly, to drop the last item -- forsaking $102,000 in expected revenue -- after a number of lawmakers protested that it would be passed on to the seniors who lived at the facilities.

One of the biggest items in the governor's original spending package was the $1.152 billion he budgeted for salary and benefits for state workers. The lawmakers' own budget advisers say they have not yet calculated how much more or less the House-passed budget would cost on that front.

But the package no longer contains the 2-percent raise Carcieri proposed, in exchange for having state workers contribute to their health, dental and vision care premiums which, starting June 26, will cost up to $12,926 for each worker. Carcieri had been counting on the premium-sharing to save taxpayers a net $10.6 million.

Both the savings and the raises are now gone from the budget. But with most of the state's union contracts about to expire, Carcieri signalled again yesterday that he is still pushing to have the workers pay 5 percent of the premiums this year, and up to 15 percent by the third year of their new contracts.

Several Republicans were among those criticizing a proposal to prohibit people from renewing or receiving a driver's or professional license if they are delinquent on taxes.

"Basically this is another way of using state government to intimidate or bully people into paying taxes," said Joseph N. Amaral, R-Tiverton.

But Rep. Paul Crowley, D-Newport, in response, criticized the Republicans for taking aim at proposals -- like that one -- that were in Carcieri's original budget package.

Rep. Paul Moura, D-Providence, raised a flag about a budget article that would direct the Human Resource Investment Council to use $3.4 million for adult literacy programs out of the $9.6 million it receives from business payroll taxes. Moura voted for it, but said he was concerned some businesses might be cut out of other job-development programs because the money was redirected.

On the other hand, Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr., D-Bristol, praised a budget article that allows residents at the Rhode Island Veterans Home to pay less of their income toward the home's services. He said it would correct "a great injustice that was done to our veterans during the banking crisis," when the state began taking a bigger cut.