Legislative leaders, citing lame- duck Gov. Paterson’s huge legal troubles and the late release of a massive, $6 billion borrowing scheme, privately concede there’s no chance to get a new state budget adopted by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year.

In fact, many predict there won’t be a budget until late June, at the earliest, the time proposed by Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch to start a newly configured fiscal year in which he wants to begin a multibillion-dollar bailout borrowing program.

Some state budget experts, grappling with a projected $9 billion-plus deficit, forecast a new budget won’t be adopted until after the November election, setting a record for lateness.

Budget delays require passage of “continuing budget resolutions” submitted by a governor to keep basic state services functioning.

Key Democratic lawmakers were shocked late last week when Paterson claimed during a chat with a friendly radio host that all was going well in the budget process, when the state faces one of its gravest budget crises ever.

“The governor said last week that he’s ‘just where he wants to be’ on the budget. Unfortunately, he’s not where many people think he ought to be, which is on the second floor [the governor's office] of the Capitol negotiating a budget,” said a top Democrat in the Legislature.

“Having an absent chief executive, whether in mind or in person, certainly hinders the process and makes a difficult budget year a nearly impossible budget year in terms of getting it on time.”

Paterson is facing three criminal probes involving allegations that he interfered in a domestic violence case involving a top aide, that he lied under oath to the Public Integrity Commission, and that he corruptly awarded the now-canceled Aqueduct racino contract.

Meanwhile, Ravitch’s efforts to sell his proposal weren’t helped by what several legislators saw as his “disrespectful” treatment of the Assembly Democratic Conference.

“He was being asked some questions by a senior conference member, and he just turned his back and said to a staff member, ‘You deal with this,’ ” said a source.

“That was pretty disrespectful on Ravitch’s part, and people saw it that way,” the source continued.

Ravitch’s budget plan — billed as an effort to end the state’s notorious penchant for spending far more than it takes in — is widely seen as the product of a secret negotiation with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan,) who has long championed the state’s big spending programs.

Source: NY Post