HARRISBURG -- House Speaker John Perzel yesterday set the tone for a contentious legislative session starting in January.

Mr. Perzel, a Philadelphia Republican, claimed Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell is leading the state down a path of increased welfare spending and tax hikes, and said the Republican-controlled Legislature has been too willing to go along with him.

"We've been too much with the governor," Mr. Perzel said at the Pennsylvania Press Club. People "want you to work together to a point, but I think we went beyond that point and we're addressing it."

The governor's office, meanwhile, said Mr. Perzel's comments were part of a misguided attempt to mend a caucus still healing after Election Day when nine GOP incumbents lost.

"This is a fractured caucus desperately trying to find one voice and the speaker is trying to give it to them," said Kate Philips, press secretary for Mr. Rendell.

"We don't anticipate having any trouble getting things done in the next four years," particularly because the governor was re-elected by a 20-point margin, she added.

Mr. Perzel interprets those results differently.

Voters like the governor, but they don't like his policies, particularly on spending and welfare, Mr. Perzel contended.

"They took their frustrations out on the next best thing -- the legislators who helped him with his policies," he said.

"The results read like a mandate for fundamental reform in how state government works," he told some 150 people at the luncheon.

The new Legislature for 2007-08, which takes office in January, must change the course, he said.

Mr. Perzel said he heard voters loud and clear on Election Day.

"They want change and our pledge is to focus on issues important to Pennsylvania," he said.

If voters want answers, though, they may have to look elsewhere.

Mr. Perzel yesterday pledged reform but refused to answer questions about access to legislators' expense accounts and about last year's controversial pay raise that led voters to oust 24 state lawmakers.

Luncheon attendees wrote out questions on index cards, which were screened and read aloud by moderator John Baer, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.

"The pay raise is over, John. It's been repealed. What else is there to talk about?" Mr. Perzel responded when asked whether he regrets telling his caucus in 2005 that no one ever lost an election over a raise.

Mr. Perzel also refused to explain why he won't make legislator's expense accounts available online for the public to access.

"I'm not going to [put the reports on the Internet]," he said.

"Yes, but the question was why aren't you going to put it on the Internet," Mr. Baer said.

"Because I'm not going to," Mr. Perzel repeated.

The information is available through the House chief clerk's office, but requests often take weeks to process. That isn't likely to change as long as Mr. Perzel is in charge.

Whether his party will retain control of the House is in question because of a squabble over provisional and absentee ballots in two close races in Chester County. Not including those two races, the House is split with 101 Democrats and 100 Republicans.

The Senate remains in Republican control.

If the balance shifts in the House, minority leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, would likely become the new speaker and Mr. Perzel, at best, would become minority leader.

Mr. Perzel, viewed by friends as self-assured and by enemies as arrogant, surprised neither group yesterday with his lack of concern about his power slipping away.

His party is adept at getting Democrats to switch parties post-election. That's how the GOP gained the majority, a status they've held since after the 1994 election when former Rep. Tom Stish, of Hazelton, became a Republican.

Mr. Perzel rattled off the names of six other Democratic lawmakers who switched parties since 1990. Meanwhile, only one Republican switched sides in that time period.

"We've been much more successful at it than they have," Mr. Perzel said. "I would expect that trend to continue."

Now he is focused on helping his members find the courage he says they will need to keep Mr. Rendell from expanding welfare programs and increasing taxes.

"The Legislature and I will lead where Gov. Rendell has failed in the last four years," said Mr. Perzel, who was nominated by his party to remain speaker. The full House will have the final say about that in January.

Mr. Perzel wants to improve transportation, reduce welfare spending, cut property taxes and revamp the school-funding system.

He said he is willing to look into a proposal to reduce the size of the Legislature, but stopped short of saying whether he endorses the effort.

Instead, he called for a committee to study the idea.

With 203 House members and 50 senators, Pennsylvania has the second-largest full-time General Assembly in the country.

"I believe it's important for legislators to be close to their constituents ... but I understand the call for a smaller Legislature," he said.

"Reform is on the way," he said, "and I am the Pennsylvania legislator willing to lead that reform."