ALBANY — Less than a day before lawmakers were due to return for a special session, the Senate’s top Democrat could not say whether he would have enough of his colleagues attending to be able to pass any bills.

The two-day session, which starts at 6 p. m. today, will cost more than $100,000 in per diems and travel costs for lawmakers and staff. It could be a bust if the Democrats cannot produce the 32 votes needed in the Senate to pass the final component of the state budget, which was due March 31.

Senate Democratic Conference Leader John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, in a conference call, beat back a dozen or so questions from reporters asking whether his house will have enough Democrats to make the special session — ordered by Gov. David A. Paterson — worthwhile.

Sampson would say only that today’s session is “about resolving outstanding issues.”

The latest the state budget has ever been adopted is Aug. 11, which occurred in 2004.

The $135 billion budget is incomplete because a final bill — with about $1.5 billion in revenue- raising ideas — is stalled in the Senate. This is because at least one senator, William T. Stachowski, D-Lake View, said last month that he would not vote for the bill unless an unrelated plan to give more financial autonomy to the state university system is approved.

Talks in recent days have again focused on letting the state university plan proceed on a trial basis at the University at Buffalo and possibly an additional campus or two.

But Stachowski said Tuesday that he had heard of no progress on the state university issue and that he has no plans to vote for the last budget bill until the SUNY matter is settled. “We’ve got to have something,” he said. “Why would we drag it out this long and not do something for SUNY?”

Lawmakers have not been paid since April 1 because of the late budget. Asked if he had fielded angry calls from colleagues in the last month, Stachowski said, “No. But I’m not getting paid, either. My credit card bills are going up and up, and my savings are going down and down.”

Also unresolved is Paterson’s call for lawmakers to create a$1 billion contingency fund in case Washington does not come through with an expected increase in Medicaid funding. Lawmakers also want to reverse some of the $700 million in vetoes that Paterson struck from budget bills passed before the Legislature ended its regular 2010 session last month.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who declined requests for an interview, has balked at Paterson’s state university plan, though Sampson said he and Silver have had “very fruitful” discussions on this and other issues.

On another matter, the state was notified that it had been selected as a finalist—along with 17 other states and the District of Columbia — to receive $500 million or more from Washington under the Race to the Top education program.

In January, the state had its first Race to the Top application for $700 million rejected, but has since made changes — including raising the cap on the number of charter schools permitted in the state — to try to gain approval for the next round of grants.

tprecious@buffnews.comnull