OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A stalemate in the Oklahoma Senate over two bills needed to help fix this year’s $669 million budget shortfall could lead to furloughs of Highway Patrol troopers and state prison workers if it is not resolved soon.

Democratic and Republican leaders remained at odds Tuesday over cuts to senior nutrition programs, and neither appeared willing to budge.

Democrats were angry $2.5 million for the senior meals program was not included in a budget deal Democratic Gov. Brad Henry worked out with the Legislature’s two leading Republicans — Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, and House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa.

“Senator Coffee knew from the start he needed to get 32 votes to get this done,” Democratic leader Charles Laster said. “He never even asked us for our opinion.

“Rather than trying to burn the place down, I would think Senator Coffee would actually get something done.”

Coffee contends the senior nutrition program, which costs more than $10 million annually, serves some people who don’t need it, and low-income and ill seniors receive meals through a separate program.

Henry’s spokesman Paul Sund said the governor is talking to Republicans and Democrats in the Senate in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

The budget agreement announced last month provided more than $400 million to close a shortfall in the current year’s state budget and ease cuts for education, health care, prisons and Department of Public Safety, among others.

Legislative leaders hoped to pass the necessary budget bills through the Senate and have them ready for Henry to sign before the end of the week. But late Monday, Senate Democrats threw a wrench in that plan when they voted against two key bills. Although the bills passed the 48-member Senate, they did not receive the two-thirds vote needed for them to take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature.

Without immediate funding, both the Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections would need to furlough workers, including prison guards and state troopers.

State Rep. Randy Terrill, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety, said DPS would need to file the necessary paperwork and begin furloughing employees by the end of the month. Workers would be furloughed for four days each month from March to the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

“We are not going to let that happen,” said Terrill, R-Moore. “This is terrible, shortsighted, completely irresponsible public policy.”

The Department of Corrections already has prepared a plan to furlough all workers who earn more than $50,000 a year, mostly management and administrative staff, for 12 days from March through June, agency spokesman Jerry Massie said. Workers who earn less than $50,000 a year would be required to take 10 furlough days over the same period. Massie said that furlough plan may have to be revised if an agreement is not reached this week.

“There would just be some posts you wouldn’t be able to fill,” Massie said. “Fixed posts that must be staffed would still be filled, but you would have to shut down some operations on those days that there were furloughs.”