AUGUSTA – A $5.8 billion state budget containing deep cuts that reflect the weakened national economy won final legislative approval Wednesday with strong bipartisan support.

“This budget is not a budget that anyone feels happy about,” Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono and House chair of the Appropriations Committee, told representatives before their 119-26 vote. “I hope we can all point to this budget and say this is where we all put partisanship aside.”

The two-year spending blueprint reduces spending by 8 percent compared with the current $6.3 billion spending package. The Baldacci administration said it was the first budget in at least three decades that is smaller than the one preceding it. Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat whose original budget proposal was refined by lawmakers, plans to sign the bill Thursday.

Among the areas being cut are foster care and adoption services, higher education, public school aid and property tax relief programs, said Sen. Bill Diamond, the Senate chair of the appropriations. State employees’ merit and longevity pay is frozen and they must take furlough days.

“It is simply a budget of necessity,” Diamond said before the Senate’s 33-2 vote. “It was the best results in the worst of times. It was something we simply had to do.”

The budget also cuts dozens of positions in the state’s Medicaid program, known as MaineCare, educational services to blind and disabled children and legislative expenses.

To raise money, the budget increases taxes on smokeless tobacco, reduces business equipment tax reimbursements, reduces indexing so income taxpayers pay more, and steps up efforts to collect taxes that now go uncollected. In addition, it hikes hunting and fishing license fees, tagging fees and boat registrations.

“Every Mainer will be touched by this budget and every Mainer will be touched hard,” said Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland. But amid the pages of program casualties were a few positives, said Alfond. For example, the budget contains funding to expand opportunities for Maine students to go to medical school, he said.

House GOP leader Josh Tardy, of Newport, said the budget shifts taxes and obligations on to municipalities and defers others to future legislatures. But Tardy, who praised budget reviewers from both parties for their work, said it includes needed downsizing while setting the stage for further government streamlining.

In the Senate, Republican leader Kevin Raye of Perry said, “This is not just another budget. It is groundbreaking in many ways.”

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