SPRINGFIELD - Given Gov. Rod Blagojevich's love of baseball, it's no surprise his latest financial rescue plan brings to mind Yogi Berra.

It's deja vu all over again.

Faced with a budget that may be more than $1 billion out of whack, Blagojevich is again proposing to squeeze money out of corporations.

This week, his budget office said there are at least a dozen tax breaks that could be ended to shore up the state's shaky financial foundation.

Among them is a proposal that would generate $65 million by changing the way companies are taxed when they buy software.

If the idea sounds familiar, it is.

In 2004, he floated the same idea, only to see it be rejected by the General Assembly.

On Wednesday, the governor is set to unveil his budget plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

But he faces a more immediate problem with the state's current budget situation: With a little more than four months to go in the current fiscal year, there is not enough money rolling into the state to pay current bills.

Hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacists and a litany of others who do business with the state are waiting months to get paid.

State Comptroller Dan Hynes has been sounding the warning for the past month, saying the state cannot continue to delay payment of bills to state vendors who provide services to the poor, disabled and unemployed.

The General Assembly's fiscal forecasting agency also has raised red flags, saying a downturn in the national economy will hurt what may have been overly optimistic revenue estimates.

The situation has lawmakers concerned.

"This year's problems lead into next year, and it becomes even a greater problem," Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville, said Thursday.

As the governor heads toward his budget speech, he has put the blame for the current shortfall on the General Assembly.

Katherine Ridgway, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Revenue, said the budget was approved "with inflated revenue estimates," which has resulted in the state spending more money than it has.

The governor vetoed more than $400 million in spending that had been set aside by lawmakers for local projects and programs. In addition, the administration has been operating under an unofficial hiring freeze.

But even with that, Blagojevich acknowledges that the state will still be millions of dollars short at the end of the fiscal year.

The Department of Revenue estimates closing the so-called "corporate loopholes" would generate $622 million.

Lawmakers haven't been willing to go along with the governor.

In 2004, his proposal to end the tax break on software purchases failed after major Illinois businesses such as Bloomington-based insurance giant State Farm Insurance Cos. said the change would cost the company several million dollars, resulting in higher premium costs for customers.

The administration is hoping the state's painful financial situation might convince lawmakers to take another look.

"We have had discussions with some of the leaders' staff about the need to close corporate loopholes, which serve no economic purpose," Ridgway said.

Kurt Erickson can be reached at kurt.erickson@lee.net or 789-0865.