With the state budget now 27 days late, Gov. David Paterson today pleaded with the Legislature to pretty please give an up-or-down passage to his proposal – enhanced with an additional $620 million worth of cuts and revenue to cover a deficit gap that has opened since his Feb. 9 budget amendments.

“I will take responsibility for this budget,” Paterson said. “I will take responsibility for these decisions and the viability of this budget’s addressing the difficult economic times that we face.”

“…Time is of the essence,” the governor continued. “All of us need to be aware that the quicker we pass this budget the sooner and faster we can begin to recover from our economic situation.”

To cut $620 million, Paterson is calling for – among other things – reducing member items, eliminating the reimbursement for Timothy’s Law, reducing TAP assistance for religious institutions and delaying the Capitol roof project.

There are also new revenue generators in the governor’s plan, including a hike in the tax on chewing tobacco, cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff and rolling tobacco.

He also incorporated $100 million worth of cuts identified by the Legislature. That includes reducing the judiciary budget, eliminating the Smart Scholars program, cutting state support for ORDA.

In addition, Paterson said he’s sending the Legislature a bill that would give him the power to furlough public employees one day a week in every new appropriation passed between now and a budget deal.

This furlough move is necessary, Paterson said, because the state workers unions have so far rejected his call for members to voluntarily give up their 4 percent contractually negotiated raises in the face of the state’s fiscal crisis.

If the Legislature continues to be unable to reach an agreement, the governor said, then lawmaker should at the very least start staying in Albany five days a week (starting next Monday) until they manage to do so.

(As the Post’s Brendan Scott noted, the mere fact that the governor is calling on the Assembly and Senate to work a full week when they reconvene seems to set himself up for failure in getting them to heed his call to pass his budget tomorrow. Paterson didn’t really address that question).

He did, however, go out of his way to avoid slamming lawmakers, insisting he’s trying to avoid acrimony.

But the governor just couldn’t resist taking a bit of a swipe at the Senate Democrats for drawing a line in the sand on providing property tax relief in the budget, calling it a “sham” to provide tax rebate checks that are funded with borrowed money.

“The public is going to wind up paying it back,” Paterson said.

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