ALBANY -- Gov. David A. Paterson has been making a curious sales pitch as he assesses the finally completed state budget.

"It doesn't tax much, either," Paterson said.

How much is not much? Try $1 billion -- at least.

New or higher taxes and fees on everything from tobacco products, court filings, clothing purchases and Internet hotel bookings will bring Albany just over $1 billion this year, while other "revenue actions," like trying to collect taxes on Indian cigarette sales, are worth another $500 million or so.

Paterson's positive spin may not be entirely off base. Depending on which side you believe, taxpayers last year paid an additional $6 billion to $8 billion -- a record.

"After you've enacted the largest tax increase by an order of magnitude in New York's history, nothing looks like that much. But this would still rank among the largest single tax increases ever," E. J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative group, said of the newly enacted budget's tax tab.

"This is $1 billion. A billion dollars is real money," he said.

Paterson's final budget as governor also provides a number of tax hike "favors" for the next governor who takes office Jan. 1. The value of all the tax and fee hikes and other revenue-raising maneuvers contained in the 2010 budget grows by at least another $1 billion in 2011.

The impact of this year's tax hikes is far and wide.

The clothing and shoe tax hike -- ending the current sales tax exemption on purchases under $110 -- is worth $330 million. But it is considered regressive because it hits low-income New Yorkers the hardest.

The super wealthy -- the 3,800 or so New Yorkers making more than $10 million a year -- will see their charitable deductions cut in half. That will raise $135 million, but charitable organizations say it will also reduce donation levels. [The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently found eight of the nation's top 50 donors are New Yorkers, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave $254 million last year.]

And smokers this summer bore the brunt of a rise in state excise taxes by $1.60 per pack to $4.35 per pack, the nation's highest. While tobacco users complain or look for breaks by buying in another state or from Indian retailers, health groups say the tax will save lives and cut the state's health care tab.

New York again is tapping gamblers to help balance a budget, with $45 million from their wallets. That's how much the state believes will be made by keeping racetrack casinos, including the one in Hamburg, open 20 hours a day, instead of 16 hours.

Some of the tax and fee hikes appear to be nickel-and-dime material but generate considerable revenue. The new budget extends for another three years the "waste tire management fee" -- the charge of $2.50 per tire that motorists pay whenever they buy new tires, including on a new car. That's worth $5 million this year and $20 million next year, the governor's budget office estimates.

An assortment of new court fees includes a $95 charge paid by plaintiffs -- typically credit card companies and banks -- in consumer credit cases, and a $190 "index fee" in property foreclosure filings. A company wanting to do a criminal background check on a new hire will see that fee rise from $55 to $65 -- worth another $7.5 million for Albany.

There are new parks fees and a broader reach into the virtual world to capture sales taxes on Internet hotel bookings. Vendors who send their sales-tax receipts to Albany on a monthly basis lose the credits for those more timely filings -- raising $17 million for Albany this year.

Hedge fund executives came out OK, though. A $50 million tax on nonresidents who work for New York hedge funds was erased in a budget amendment this week.

Hollywood was the big winner this year. While funding for schools and health care was reduced and taxes hiked on most business sectors, the film industry saw its tax break for movies made in the state soar -- a credit that especially helps New York City. In the next four years, the film industry will receive $2.1 billion in state tax breaks.

New York companies, though, were sounding the loudest complaints after the Senate approved the final revenue bill Tuesday.

At issue is the deferral of $100 million in a couple dozen business-tax credits: developers of low-income housing and green buildings, reuse projects at former industrial sites, companies that transport disabled people, purchases of automated external defibrillators, historic home rehabilitations and alternative fuel production.

Historic property rehabilitation projects in Buffalo are expected to take a serious hit from the reduced credits.

The $100 million in delayed credits this year balloons to about $900 million in extra revenue for Albany in each of the next two years. And while the state calls it a "deferral" of credits, most groups believe the money will never be seen.

Business groups said the credits were viewed as a promise by companies that had already budgeted for tax breaks when they bought equipment, hired workers or expanded operations.

Kenneth Pokalsky, the chief lobbyist at the Business Council of New York State, said the state's economic development and job creation efforts are "incentive based" with features like tax credits for manufacturing equipment purchases or real estate development in blighted areas.

"This is going to take the air right out of those efforts," he said.

Critics said the state can't be trusted by businesses.

"New York and every other state are going to be struggling to climb out of the recession," said Pokalsky, pointing to the fierce competition among states to attract companies. "We didn't do much to make New York State competitive in that recovery process."

"It's a tax increase, there's no other way around it," Mike Elmendorf, director of the National Federation of Independent Business in New York, said of the tax-credit loss.

But others concerned about spending cuts say the state should have raised more taxes, especially on the incomes of the wealthy. And they offered little sympathy for the complaints of business groups.

"They want everything cut, but when it comes to businesses they don't want that cut," said Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, a social welfare advocacy group whose major backers are public employee unions.

tprecious@buffnews.comnull