The governor also defended the infamous pay raise for Pennsylvania judges, saying some of them couldn’t afford to put their children through college, and that first-year law-school grads were making more than they did.

And Rendell, who met with the New Era on Wednesday for a wide-ranging interview, outlined his policy agenda in broad terms if elected to a second four-year term in the Nov. 7 election.

“I’ve been pretty consistent with what my priorities are,” he said.

“I think we’ve made great progress on all of my priorities, but we haven’t reached our goals.”

Rendell said he wants to continue work on reviving the state’s economy, broadening access to health care, boosting school test scores and providing property-tax relief and reform.

He specifically cited the expansion of the state’s property tax rebate program for low-income seniors as “significant progress,” but added, “I want to go farther next year and broaden the property tax relief and actually get into reform, which involves tax shifting.

“I was in favor, of course, of raising the sales tax and using 100 percent of that money for property tax reform,” Rendell said. That plan died in the state Legislature.

Separately, the governor promised to work on a sweeping new open-records law if re-elected, and said he would order his administration to make public financial documents related to the state’s new gaming board. (See related story.)

Rendell also spoke about the need for new legislative and regulatory crackdowns on “puppy mills,” which have earned Pennsylvania notoriety among animal lovers.

The governor’s proposals include making criminal penalties tougher, and allowing dog wardens to seize distressed animals.

Rendell also wants to force dog breeders to use cages twice the size they are now, while requiring dogs housed in kennels to be exercised for 20 minutes a day.

“You’d have to spend some money. You’d have to buy a bigger cage. But those guys make a ton of money,” he said of breeders.

“The problem is not just physical abuse — and often there is physical abuse — but it’s psychological abuse.

“A lot of owners who have these kennels view the dogs as pretty much the same as if they’re raising pigs and chickens,” Rendell said.

“But pigs and chickens are raised for slaughtering in four or five months. Dogs are raised to go into a home and live with a human family for a decade, a decade and a half.

“It’s the psychological damage, the lack of socialization in kennels — and that’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

Rendell, a Democrat, reiterated his promise to serve all four years as governor if he beats Republican Lynn Swann in the election.

He said 20 state House races are “up for grabs,” and that Democrats stand to pick up at least four or five seats. They need eight to gain control of the House.

“We are, last time I checked, ahead in 11 races. If the election were held tomorrow, we would probably get control of the House,” Rendell said.

Rendell met Wednesday afternoon with three New Era editors and one reporter at the Lancaster Newspapers Inc. offices on West King Street.

Though he touched on a dozen or more issues, Rendell’s most colorful remarks came when he was asked about the pay raise for lawmaker and judges, which led to the ouster of more than a dozen incumbents in May’s primary, along with the legalization of slot machines.

Rendell was asked why he appeared to have escaped the voter outrage politically unscathed, even though he signed the raise into law and reportedly called it a “good bill.”

“That’s actually not true,” he said.

“I said there were pieces of the legislation — and I still believe that — that were good: one, getting a future pay-raise plan that took the power away from the Legislature was good.”

(The pay raise, which was later repealed for lawmakers, would have tied legislative salaries to that of congressmen.)

“Two, and I know people don’t like to hear this, but giving raises to the judges was appropriate,” Rendell said. “We have Common Pleas judges in Pennsylvania who make less than first-year law graduates in Philadelphia firms.

“And we are having a terrible problem getting or keeping 40- and 50-year-old judges who have multiple kids in school,” he said.

“They just can’t afford it because they make enough money, salary-wise, that they’re not eligible for any financial aid.

“But if they’ve got two or three kids in the same age bracket going through school, they can’t do it. They just cannot do it. So I thought those two things were good.”

Supreme Court associate justices’ salaries will increase from $155,783 to about $171,000. The pay of common pleas judges will increase from $135,293 to about $149,000, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

Rendell said he’s managed to escape much of the pay-raise furor because, a week before he signed the raise into law, he announced he would not accept an increase in salary. He also said voters are looking at his entire record as governor.

“It’s not that people agreed with what I did,” Rendell said. “People believe I made a mistake, and I believe I made a mistake. But they’re willing to look at all the things that I’ve done as governor, and not just one.”

Rendell strongly defended the decision to legalize up to 61,000 slot machines at 14 sites, saying the benefits to the state in the form of new economic development money, jobs and tax relief will far outweigh the negatives.

He added that residents are already gambling — just not in Pennsylvania. They’re driving or being bused across state lines to New Jersey and West Virginia, spending $4 billion a year at out-of-state casinos.

“Look, you go back to the Tigris and Euphrates and you will find in a cave near the Tigris and Euphrates a painting on the wall that looks suspiciously like dice. People are going to gamble. You cannot change that.

“The only thing you can do is try to restrict it, to the extent that you’ve got some level of control of it ... and number two, try to get some upside from it,” Rendell said.

Asked whether easier access to casinos will result in an increase in the number of people addicted to gambling, Rendell said yes, but added that “for every one person who falls addicted to gambling or loses their paycheck, I’ll show you 500 — mostly seniors — who spent $40 at a casino and had the best day of their month.

“And if you don’t believe me, come to Philadelphia — I know exactly where the buses board for Atlantic City.

“These are people who lead very gray lives. They don’t see their sons and daughters very much. They don’t have much social interaction. There’s not a whole lot of good things that happen in their month,” the governor said of some seniors.

“But if you put them on the bus they’re excited. They’re happy. They have fun. They see bright lights. They hear music. They pull that slot machine and with each pull they think they have a chance to win,” he said.

“Most of them lose, and they lose $40 — less than they would lose in Philadelphia if they went to a movie and dinner. And that should be their option.

“I’m not saying gambling is a good thing,” Rendell said. “I’m just saying it exists, and it’s going to exist whether we have it or not. And if you think gambling is all evil, you ought to come on one of those bus trips.

“It’s unbelievable what brightness and cheer it brings to older Pennsylvanians,” he said. “Unbelievable.”