(NYT) — Seeking to outflank Gov. David A. Paterson, the State Senate and Assembly offered a joint budget plan on Saturday that would restore hundreds of millions of dollars in education and social service cuts that Mr. Paterson had sought in an emergency budget bill that he submitted on Friday.
But Democratic leaders in both chambers said that they were still negotiating about how to raise enough revenue to pay for the restored spending and close what remains of a budget gap of more than $9 billion. Mr. Paterson has said he would veto any budget that includes deficit borrowing, the preference of many Democratic lawmakers. Stopping short of that, he may also use line-item vetoes of any spending that goes above what he proposed in his executive budget in January.
