ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson is, or is not, contemplating laying off thousands of state workers, depending on who is speaking for the administration.

The governor, however, described such chatter as just “speculation” and said he his focusing on trying to win a court challenge to his plan to furlough about 100,000 state workers for eight days over two months to help close a $9.2 billion deficit.

The governor met behind closed doors for about an hour Monday evening with Assembly Democrats, who are most solidly against the depth to which Paterson has proposed cutting such programs as education and health care.

“We talked a lot about how the Democratic Party may have to evolve in this era of crisis, and we may have to make decisions that are tough and certainly painful,” Paterson said after the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Paterson bemoaned the closing of dozens of state parks ordered by his administration — on the same morning he attended a ribbon cutting for a new park in Manhattan.

The governor defended the closing of 55 state parks and historic sites, including several in the Buffalo area, saying he had no choice. And, no, he said, he did found no irony in closing the parks on the same day that he spent part of his morning at a ceremony for a new section of the Hudson River Park on Manhattan’s West Side.

“This kills me to stand in a park knowing that I have closed down 41 parks and 14 other cultural sites,” Paterson told reporters after the ribbon cutting for the new park section, which he said was planned well in advance of the closing notices for state parks around the state.

“I don’t want to do that. It pains me to do that,” he said of his proposed state budget, which closed Woodlawn Beach, Knox Farm, Joseph David and other facilities in Western New York. He called the parks “an unfortunate casualty” of the fiscal crisis.

Asked Monday evening in Albany why he celebrated the opening of the Manhattan park, which is jointly funded by the city and state, while other parks were closing at nearly the same moment, Paterson said the New York City project had been “in the pipeline.” But he added the park closings were discussed extensively in the closed Assembly session, and all sides are trying to reach a deal to “save some of the parks.” He did not elaborate.

The parks shutdown would save about $6 million this year in a budget of about $135 billion. But Paterson has been using the issue to pressure lawmakers to reach an overall budget deal.

Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked the plan to furlough state workers, suggesting unions made a strong case that their collective bargaining agreements would be violated. Paterson wants state workers to agree to $250 million in payroll cuts, through furloughs a pay freeze or now possibly layoffs.

Last year, the Paterson administration struck a deal with labor groups not to lay off any unionized state worker until at least next January. On Monday, the governor said he “theoretically” could ignore that memorandum of understanding signed by one of his advisers because the state’s fiscal plight is worse than contemplated at the time.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he agreed with Paterson that the governor has the legal right to lay off state workers. “We need the $250 million in savings. The governor controls the state work force, and he can do it in any appropriate way under the law in order to make the savings,” Silver said.

Paterson and legislative leaders will hold a public meeting this morning that could reveal just how far apart they remain on agreeing on a budget for the fiscal year that began April 1.

But after today, the Legislature is scheduled to go on a break and not return until next week. but the Democrats’ three-day statewide nominating convention will begin Tuesday, followed by Republicans the next week. Lawmakers said the party gatherings will make approval of a budget nearly impossible for several weeks.

The two houses passed another emergency spending bill Monday to keep the government running another week. But lawmakers rejected a plan by Paterson to delay about $1.5 billion in payments due to schools June 1 until sometime later in the month.

Paterson now will have to delay the payments unilaterally or include the postponement in a future emergency bill, which would force the Legislature to accept the delay or shut down the government. A short-term borrowing plan for the June cash flow problem also remains on the table, while Assembly Democrats are still pushing a $2 billion borrowing to help close the deficit, a plan sharply criticized by watchdogs — and the governor — as punting on the difficult choices to cut spending.