ALBANY — The governor and lawmakers have placed an over-reliance on unreliable revenues and one-shot fiscal gimmicks risks while putting together the 2010 state budget — and they still haven't completed the job, the state's chief fiscal watchdog warned in Buffalo this morning.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the the still-emerging budget relies on nearly $5 million in "risky'' revenues and other assumptions that could throw the plan into the red.

The budget makers are banking on a shaky flow of money to balance the budget, such as $1.1

billion in questionable federal Medicaid reimbursements, taxes on Indian cigarette sales and

hundreds of millions of dollars in "sweeps" from off-budget accounts that provide only

temporary relief, DiNapoli said.

The state's fiscal year began April 1. A final component of the budget — an

approximately $1.5 billion revenue bill to pay for some of the added spending — still

has not passed the Senate, which is holding out for a deal on unrelated issues with the

Assembly.

"What we needed from Albany was leadership and reform. What we ended up with was a late

budget with no real answers to New York's chronic budget problems," DiNapoli said in a

statement.

He was releasing the report during a trip today to Buffalo.

In addition to not fully closing the current $9.2 billion deficit, the governor and

lawmakers also have left a budgetary mess for the next governor, who will take office Jan. 1,

the comptroller said.

The current budget contains $14 billion in non-recurring actions, known as one-shots, or

temporary measures, such as short-term tax increases, that "virtually guarantees" higher

deficits beyond 2010, DiNapoli said.

The comptroller, in a worrisome, eight-page report, warned the state could face a deficit of

$7 billion in 2011, in large part because of actions — or inactions — in the

budget plan nearing adoption for this year.

DiNapoli is not alone in his criticisms of the budget.

A new poll out this morning finds that nearly half of New Yorkers give state legislators an

"F" grade for their handling of the budget. About a quarter of the respondents said Paterson

flunked his fiscal job, the Siena College Research Institute found.

Forty-seven percent gave the Legislature a failing grade while another 24 percent handed it

a "D." Only one person, a New York City resident, gave lawmakers an "A" out of 760 people

participating in the poll.

On a 4.0 grading system, pollster Steven Greenberg said the Legislature earned a meager 0.9

grade, while Paterson got a 1.4 grade on how the budget was handled.

Paterson's vetoing of pork barrel spending last year won the support of 49 percent of

voters, while his vetoing of $419 million of state aid to public schools was opposed by 58

percent of voters. The governor last week released 6,700 separate line item vetoes, which

included $525 million in spending lawmakers wanted for this year and another $190 million in

pork barrel spending on local projects approved over the last several years but not yet spent.

The Siena poll today also found support among voters for a plan — embraced by the Senate

and Paterson but stalled in the Assembly — to provide the state university system with

more autonomy to set its own tuition levels, including annual tuition hikes. The plan also

provides more flexibility for campuses to enter into partnerships with private companies and

to relax pre-auditing of contracts by the comptroller — though the Siena poll did not

ask about those components.

Asked if they supported SUNY being able to set its own tuition levels, 54 percent said yes

and 36 percent said no. Upstate voters backed the idea 62 percent to 31 percent. The plan

received more support than opposition across party lines.

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher seized upon the poll's findings,

saying New Yorkers "have made a clear choice to unleash the vast potential of the State

University of New York."

Negotiators at the Capitol have been studying a possible pilot project for the plan for the

University at Buffalo, which has pushed the idea for several years, and possibly other SUNY

centers, such as Stony Brook.

The comptroller said the spending portion of the budget — which has already been

approved by both houses — totals $136.5 billion. About $2.1 billion of that came by the

Paterson's administration to delay payments, chiefly to schools, that were due in the previous

fiscal year and not pay the tabs until after April 1. The total budget is up $9.6 billion from

last year, or 7.6 percent, DiNapoli said.

The $4.8 billion in various revenue-raising steps taken in the 2010 budget are "risky," the

comptroller said.

Besides the federal Medicaid money and Indian cigarette tax revenues, he noted that the

Legislature is counting on $500 million in "work force" savings — a level twice what

Paterson had projected.

But state worker unions have said they are not willing to provide any contract concessions,

making uncertain how those savings will be realized. DiNapoli also questioned whether the $500

million in recoveries from Medicaid fraud investigations is overly optimistic.

The failure by the governor and lawmakers to rely on more reliable revenue streams comes,

against a backdrop of a slowing recovery in the national economy and high unemployment —

situations beyond the control of Albany that could compound the state's budget problems,

DiNapoli warned.

Beyond a potential $7 billion gap in 2011, the comptroller said the following two years'

deficits will also likely be worse than the $23 billion already projected by the governor.

"The large general fund budget gap reaffirms that the growth in state spending continues to

exceed the growth in state revenue," the comptroller's report warned. The report noted the

governor is projecting revenue growing at an average of 3.4 percent over the next three years,

while spending already on the books will be up 8.1 percent per year.

"The long-standing reliance on one-shots, debt and other non-recurring resources to address

the state's operating deficit is unsustainable," the report said.

DiNapoli, a Democrat, is running against Harry Wilson, a Republican and former hedge fund

manager.