A budget deal could be a lot further away that you think.

Gov. David Paterson did not sound in a negotiating sort of mood this morning when he essentially accused state lawmakers of being more concerned about keeping their jobs than actually doing them.

While chatting with WOR’s John Gambling, Paterson rejected the notion that a budget agreement might be as little as a week away, saying: “When a budget is a week away, you actually pretty much know what the terms of the budget are going to be. And we do not.”

Paterson noted the Senate and Assembly have been stuck at $3.2 billion apart in their efforts to close the $9.2 billion budget deficit for well over a week.

“Right now, I’m not hearing the kind of conversation that makes me think we’re going to get any closer,” the governor said.

“I’m hearing about property tax rebates in an election year…Do you think that anybody is going to be fooled if you borrow money to send checks to senior citizens in the middle of an election year? That’s not solving the problem.”

(I neglected to mention that the STAR rebate restoration is being pushed by the Senate Democrats, with the support of some Republicans – particularly those on Long Island – for whom property tax relief has long been a signature issue).

Paterson went on to say it would be “suicidal” to add to the state’s already significant debt burden, and pledged he would not saddle the next governor – “or even the governor who comes after that” – with a situtation similar to the one he encountered when he succeeded former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in March 2008.

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