Sounding more like Ronald Reagan than Mario Cuomo, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer acknowledged the cost to the state’s businesses of high corporate taxes, preached the virtues of limited government, and railed against bureaucratic inefficiency in a speech yesterday to Manhattan construction executives.

Speaking before the New York Building Congress at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, the attorney general laid out an economic agenda that was music to the builders’ and contractors’ ears. Though he offered few specific policy prescriptions, he sought to position himself for his gubernatorial campaign next year as a pro-business “new Democrat,” and he made clear that Daniel Patrick Moynihan – a popular Democratic moderate who served in the Nixon administration – was his “political and intellectual hero.”

The tone of the speech represented a marked departure from the tenor of Mr. Spitzer’s six years as attorney general. In that time, through his aggressive investigations into corporate crime, particularly in the securities and insurance industries, he has inspired widespread fear and animus in business circles.

The speech was also calibrated to avoid having Mr. Spitzer dragged into the bitter political feud over the proposed West Side stadium complex, with the attorney general declaring himself “an agnostic” on the issue. Still, he did not conceal from the builders his view that “stadiums often fail to deliver on their economic promise.”

In a wry moment, Mr. Spitzer did note that one argument that held sway with him was the difficulty in imagining a football stadium without tailgating facilities. Though he declared himself a full supporter of Mayor Bloomberg’s bid to land the 2012 Olympics, he said he doubted the success of the bid would hinge solely on the fate of Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal for the New York Sports and Convention Center.

Mr. Spitzer began his examination of the state’s economic challenges by announcing, “We are the most overtaxed state in America.”

Before anyone might mistake him for a speaker at an event at the conservative Manhattan Institute, however, Mr. Spitzer quickly said the idea of cutting taxes in New York has become “little more than a shell game,” with municipal taxes getting raised after state income taxes are cut.

Moreover, in response to a question from The New York Sun, he acknowledged corporate taxes “were high, probably too high relative to what they get back from the state now,” but he declined to say what he would do about tax rates.

He also spoke about the poor return on the state’s huge volume of debt issuance – at $45 billion, it is now the second highest in America – that has failed to create “value-adding” infrastructure. “This state lacks the capital assets that would have made this level of debt justifiable,” he said.

Reforming the costs of New York’s workers’ compensation insurance system would be a priority for him as governor, Mr. Spitzer said.

Decrying its high costs, he said it places New York at a competitive disadvantage relative to states whose systems are more efficient.

Workers’ comp is something of a sacred cow for both pro-business and pro-labor groups.

“If he were to do this in a meaningful way, the state could be more competitive in terms of attracting employers immediately, because New York is so expensive,” the research director of the pro-business Public Policy Institute, Robert Ward, said. He said New York’s workers comp costs on average are about 80% higher than those of other states.

For labor, the problem is getting an increase from the $400 maximum weekly payout for what is called “permanent partial disability.” The state currently ranks 49th out of 50 states in terms of the amount paid to injured workers, according to the political director of the New York chapter of the Communication Workers of America, Bob Master. “We think Mr. Spitzer can come up with an agreeable compromise,” he said.