Gov. Patrick, always staying positive.

Gov. Deval Patrick hinted Wednesday at trying to draw progressive measures into the state tax code after his first term, saying more affluent Bay State residents are able to ease burdens on low-income people.

The remaining 18 months of his term are not likely to include any major tax hikes, Patrick said, two days after approving over $1 billion in new taxes in the fiscal 2010 budget, support he withheld until the House and Senate delivered him changes to the state’s transportation, ethics, and pension laws.

“I’m done with taxes for now,” Patrick said.

In a News Service interview, Patrick said he has heard demands for preserved and restored state services, which have taken a beating as revenues have cratered and caseload demands have surged.

“What we have in Massachusetts is a number of wealthy people who would be willing to contribute more – not all of them, but certainly have the capacity to contribute more – to relieve some of the pressure on the working poor,” Patrick said. “Those are big, big questions, huge challenges. They need to be sorted out in specifics and not the kind of abstracts we’re talking about now, and I don’t think we’re going to get to any of those specifics for some time.”

Patrick said, “We don’t have many really progressive mechanisms in Massachusetts, and we’re going to have to sort that out in the fullness of time, put it that way.”

Human services, education advocates and others argue that adequate state programs require increased revenue, and say the beneficiaries of those services should pay their share. Patrick told “Greater Boston” host Emily Rooney on WGBH Wednesday that he had detected an "appetite" among the public for a graduated income tax, but said such changes required a careful approach.

Lawmakers have frowned on tweaking the income tax since voting to override a voter mandate and freeze the rate at 5.3 percent in 2000.

Asked about Patrick's tax talk Wednesday, House Ways and Means chair Charley Murphy said, "Whenever you're talking about tax policy, it’s thin ice and you have to approach it cautiously."

Legislators can expect more of the pressure tactics that have irked them in recent months, Patrick said, calling his invitations for populist lobbying of the Legislature not just effective but also a way to “keep faith with the notion of democracy.”

Patrick said that during his summer town hall tour attendees have urged him to stay his course.

“I get a lot of ‘hang in there, you know, we love what you’re doing, don’t let the bastards get you down,’ that sort of thing, and they could be talking about any number of bastards, by the way,” Patrick said during a News Service interview.

"Let them hear that on Beacon Hill!"

UPDATE: More from the Globe and Red Mass Group.

SECOND UPDATE: From the Boston Globe and Boston Herald.

THIRD UPDATE: From Red Mass Group, the Globe, the Herald, WBZ, WBUR, Mary Connaughton and Holly Robichaud.