ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson wasted little time Monday night vetoing some of

the last major spending portions of the budget that had breezed through the State Legislature

just hours earlier.

The governor took out his veto stamp, with reporters as his witnesses, to strike out $419

million in education spending he said is politically popular in an election year but

unaffordable for the state.

And he said more vetoes are coming — 6,900 of them in line-item fashion.

"Rather than act in the interest of the people of New York State, [legislators] have

engaged in legislation that is in self-interest and have presented us with a series of bills

that have the same gimmicks, chicanery and avoidance conduct that has characterized fiscal

management in this state for far too long," Paterson said.

The vetoes came as a major push to give more financial autonomy to the State University of

New York — an integral part of the University at Buffalo's expansion plans —

appeared all but dead Monday night.

Lawmakers approved the last major spending bills of the budget for 2010-11, the fiscal year

that began April 1, with no one being able to say with any certainty how much the overall plan

will cost taxpayers.

The Democratic-led Assembly and Senate passed the massive section of the budget that

provides state aid to 700 school districts, restoring $600 million — $419 million during

the state's current fiscal year — in the coming school year above what Paterson

proposed.

Before lawmakers had time to boast of the additional school money in news releases

back home, Paterson whacked the extra money — daring them to try to get the two-thirds

necessary in the two chambers for an override.

"You can't spend money you don't have," Paterson said.

In Albany today, political games were an inch below the surface.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which was to meet to consider three judgeship nominations

by Paterson, canceled the session in a slap at Paterson.

And an Assembly-Senate office that drafts legislation has stopped doing any drafting work

on Paterson bills, officials say .

Despite vows on Monday to pass today the revenue bill, including tax hikes, both houses are

now looking to push that off until Thursday. The move buys time for possible negotiation with

Paterson on budget issues, and for the two houses to decide if they want to try to pursue

overrides of the Paterson vetoes.

The Senate Republicans, whose members voted against the Monday budget bills, were being coy

... or at least not firm ... about their override intentions. In a six-paragraph statement, Senate

Republican Leader Dean Skelos condemned the budget bills approved Monday.

"They should not expect or count on Senate Republicans to bail them out of the mess that

they have made of this budget and the damage they are inflicting on taxpayers," Skelos said.

His aides declined, however, to flatly rule out Senate GOP votes to help Democrats in any

override attempt.

Democrats in the Legislature

condemned Paterson's vetoes, though Republicans in the Senate voted against the added spending and

seem uninterested in helping in any override effort. The vetoes included $33 million in

restorations beyond what the governor said was affordable for schools in Erie County and $10

million in Niagara County.

The last of the budget bills are being taken up today, including one totaling more than 300

pages that would raise more than $1 billion in various taxes and fees, such as higher sales

taxes on clothing purchases, online hotel bookings and charitable donations by wealthy people.

It also puts into law the ability for gay couples married in other states or countries to list

themselves as married for New York State income tax purposes.

And then this morning, Paterson took to the radio airwaves during rush hour, bashing the Legislature

on radio shows from Buffalo to New York City.

The Legislature left a hole of as much as $500 million with its final round of spending

bills, the governor said.

In addition, another $1 billion may not be coming Albany's way in federal Medicaid

reimbursement ... a problem facing dozens of states that planned on the funds.

On WOR in New York, Paterson sounded a threat no lawmaker wants him to pursue: force the

Legislature to return to Albany closer to this fall's re-election campaigns to consider more

cuts to close the deficit they are leaving unresolved this week.

"There's kind of an understanding that the governor will not call the Legislature back

during the election. I will, because they left this hole," Paterson said.

The governor likened the Legislature to credit card addicts who keep spending without ways

to pay for it.

"This is government acting in way (that), if this were an individual, you'd say they need

counseling," Paterson said.

In a television interview on CNBC, the governor said he will go to Washington this week with other governors to plead the states' case for the need for the full Medicaid federal funding. Paterson said 30 states were banking on the added Mediciad funds.

Meanwhile, the obituary was written for the proposal pushed by UB and the rest of SUNY to

permit the public colleges to raise tuition and to more freely engage in partnerships with

private companies.

The plan fell to opposition in the Assembly after two Senate Democrats — including

Sen. William T. Stachowski of Lake View — backed off a threat to withhold their crucial

votes on the education bill if the SUNY plan were not included.

Stachowski and Senate Democratic leaders insisted they still have leverage in the coming

days — including a threat not to vote tuetoday for the final revenue portion of the

budget — to push the Assembly on the effort giving SUNY more financial autonomy from the

state. One idea calls for "carving out" UB and the State University at Stony Brook to let it

begin the program on a pilot basis.

But a key lawmaker in the Assembly called that idea a nonstarter. "I think that has very

little support in our conference," said Assembly Higher Education Committee Chairwoman Deborah

J. Glick, D-Manhattan, who believes that the SUNY plan would harm low-income students.

"Frankly, I really don't understand why people in the Western New York region can go back

and tell the working- and middle-class people in their districts, "UB is going to be great,

but you won't be able to afford to go,'" Glick said.

The level of drama peaked Monday afternoon when the first budget bill of the day —

covering aid to public schools and SUNY, as well as a variety of social services programs

— was pulled from the Senate floor at Stachowski's request. The lawmaker then huddled

behind closed doors with Senate leaders before emerging to say he would not hold up passage of

the bill. All 32 Democratic votes in the Senate have been needed to pass budget bills because

Republicans have been voting in a bloc against them.

Stachowski and Senate Democratic Conference Leader John L. Sampson of Brooklyn sought to

put a positive spin on the maneuver, insisting they can still prod the Assembly their way

before the 2010 legislative ends likely in the coming days. Sampson said he "will do all I

can" to get the SUNY plan approved this week.

But Republicans said the issue died when Senate Democrats passed the higher-education bill

without the SUNY component. "It's absolutely dead. We've given up all of our leverage in

negotiations with the Assembly," said Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane. "UB 2020 will not

happen this year, which is just another knife in the back to Western New York," Maziarz said

of the UB plan that proposes a major expansion of the campus in downtown Buffalo.

Some backers of UB 2020, which envisions thousands of new jobs in the Buffalo area, said

Stachowski and Sen. Antoine M. Thompson, D-Buffalo, should have used their crucial votes on

the budget to get the SUNY bill, which lawmakers had been calling the biggest "ask" this year

of the state by the Western New York delegation.

"They didn't deliver," said Sam Capitano, vice president of the Buffalo Construction Trades

Council, who said thousands of construction jobs are on the line.

"Our politicians from Erie County have no stroke here. Western New York gets the shaft

again," said Capitano, who is also the business manager of the Laborers Local 210 in Buffalo.

In the Assembly, Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, said downstate Democrats could not

be convinced to back the SUNY plan. "I'm disappointed. I think it's a mistake," Peoples-Stokes

said of the Assembly's opposition to the SUNY plan. "A majority of members with SUNY campuses

in their districts could have voted for this, but were not given the opportunity."

Critics say the plan hit low-income students by not keeping grants under the Tuition

Assistance Program on pace with future tuition increases.

Paterson, who proposed the SUNY plan, said lawmakers who blocked it had "sent a strong

message" that they "prefer mediocrity in our public colleges and universities."

The public education piece passed by lawmakers Monday steered $200 million of the $600

million in restorations to the state's Big Five districts. Of that, $177 million was for New

York City; $7 million would go to Buffalo. The remaining $400 million was spread across the

state — at least for the two hours before Paterson vetoed the spending Monday night.

Lawmakers rejected Paterson's proposal to cap local property taxes. They plan Wednesday to

pass a bill driving a portion of the additional school aid money they restored — but

Paterson vetoed — toward property tax cuts this summer. The amount would have been

modest — $271 million spread statewide. By contrast, the sales tax increase on clothing

and shoe purchases would bring Albany $330 million in higher revenues this year.

Before Monday, about 70 percent of the budget had already been passed in weekly emergency

bills since the budget became late when the fiscal year began. Besides money for public

schools, lawmakers restored spending that Paterson wanted to trim to SUNY, community colleges

and grants for college students. And they added back money for adult homeless shelters, child

care grants to localities and foster care programs.

Paterson said the added legislative spending threatened to "put the finances of New Yorkers

in jeopardy." He said the Legislature also ignored his call to come up with a contingency

plan, as already embraced in other states, in the growing chance that New York will get as

much as $1 billion less in federal Medicaid reimbursement this year.