HARRISBURG -- Just after he was re-elected as leader of the state Senate yesterday, President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati said he'll try to have a new open records bill enacted by the end of this month and will also see if he can push through a slight reduction in the personal income tax rate.

Other priorities for early 2008 include enactment of a statewide smoking ban by the end of February.

Mr. Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said he couldn't predict when other, stickier issues might be resolved, such as providing health insurance for 800,000 uninsured adults in Pennsylvania, which is one of Gov. Ed Rendell's top priorities.

Senate Republicans and Democrat Rendell are often at odds over the level of spending contained in the state budget. Mr. Scarnati said he wants to closely examine the size of the proposed 2008-09 budget that the governor will unveil early next month.

The 2007-08 budget is $27.2 billion, with spending rising by 3 to 6 percent a year in recent years. Mr. Scarnati vowed to do as much as he can to hold the line on spending, to make it possible to reduce the 3.07 percent rate of the personal income tax. It's been at that level since January 2004. Any new tax rate would take effect July 1, when the new fiscal year starts.

"We definitely have to take up the spending issue," he said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after his unanimous re-election as president pro tem, a job he first held in 2007.

"We have to look at returning dollars to the taxpayers by cutting spending and cutting taxes," he said.

"The personal income tax rate affects many Pennsylvanians," including individuals and many small businesses, which pay the 3.07 percent rate on their income rather than the corporate net income rate of 9.99 percent.

With subprime mortgages continuing to damage the housing sector of the economy, and even talk about a possible recession hitting in 2008, Mr. Scarnati said it's important to return money to citizens.

Mr. Scarnati said it's too soon to say how much he might lower the personal income tax rate. It was 2.8 percent in 2003, before Mr. Rendell pushed through an increase to the current 3.07 percent.

"We need to spur the economy, and a tax cut can do that," he said.

The Senate and the House had to meet in short sessions yesterday because the constitution requires them to meet on the first Tuesday of each new year.

Mr. Scarnati also wants state Auditor General Jack Wagner, or an outside accounting firm, to do performance audits on larger state agencies, to see if they are managing their money properly.

Both Mr. Scarnati and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Chester, vowed yesterday to make a new open records law and a new statewide smoking ban their top legislative priorities for January and February.

They said the amended version of Senate Bill 1, the open records bill, that came back to the Senate from the House didn't include too many unbridgeable gaps.

"My goal is to try and have an open records bill on the governor's desk by the end of January," Mr. Pileggi said.

"We have to continue to restore the public's respect and trust in the [House and Senate] chambers that has been somewhat tarnished in past years," Mr. Scarnati said. He didn't specifically mention the 2005 pay raise for legislators and 2006 bonuses for legislative employees that have angered citizens.

A House-Senate conference committee, which includes Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, the chief advocate for a tough indoor smoking ban, has been meeting. Mr. Scarnati set a goal of the end of next month on that bill.

"We probably agree on 90 percent of the smoking ban, but the other 10 percent is divisive," Mr. Scarnati said.

It isn't certain yet when legislators will take up other heavy lifting, such as campaign finance reform, property tax reductions, health insurance for the uninsured, gun control bills and changes in energy policies.

The Senate recently sent the House an energy bill that some Democrats don't like. Mr. Rendell wants the bill to include 10 percent ethanol in a gallon of gasoline within 10 years, and the Senate hasn't agreed with that idea.