The spirit of these editorial columns would normally lead us to defend Michael Milken, the New York financier and philanthropist. Mr. Milken, the founder and chairman of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, has become a leader in the quest for a cure for the disease he himself survived. But it’s hard to think of a defense for the scheme Mr. Milken has persuaded Governor Pataki and the legislature in Albany to sign on to — adding a check-off box to state income tax forms so that New York residents and businesses can donate money to a new nonprofit corporation, the New York State Coalition to Cure Prostate Cancer.

The idea for the check-off box originated with the New York State Roundtable on Prostate Cancer, a meeting of experts hosted by Mr. Milken and the New York Senate majority leader, Jos. Bruno, another prostate-cancer survivor. Curing prostate cancer is a worthy goal — just like curing Parkinson’s disease, which does not appear on the state’s tax return, or eczema or the common cold — but the new legislation is plainly the result of Mr. Milken’s wealth and influence and Mr. Bruno’s vested interest.

New York’s Resident Income Tax Return is already littered with check-off boxes for various causes. A box for the Return a Gift to Wildlife program supports the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s fish and wildlife program. Another box adds funds to the New York State Missing and Exploited Children Clearinghouse, which is administered by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services. Taxpayers can also choose to finance the state’s Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund or another program administered by the Department of Health, the Alzheimer’s Disease Assistance Program. Yet another check-off box channels funds into the state’s Olympic Regional Development Authority through the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center Fund.

Normally, we would object to all these separate state funds not only because they are often redundant — in addition to the state’s newly created Prostate Cancer Research, Detection, and Education Fund, which finances the New York State Coalition to Cure Prostate Cancer, the state also maintains a Prostate and Testicular Cancer Research Fund, which finances another state created corporation, the Prostate and Testicular Cancer Detection and Education Advisory Council — but also because they’re symptomatic of Albany’s budget default. New York lawmakers, famous for shirking their duty to enact the state budget, are sloughing it off further, by having taxpayers do their work for them.

Since the legislators refuse to pass a budget, why not put all the state’s budget items on the tax return? The state could ask taxpayers whether they would like to contribute even more funds to the most expensive Medicaid program in the nation. A check-off box could ask New Yorkers whether they want a new tax on hospitals and home care services. Another could ask them whether they want to keep paying the state’s tax on clothing purchases, or whether it should expire as originally intended. Mr. Pataki could find out whether his constituents want his proposed new tax on hospitals and home care. Perhaps a check-off box could ask taxpayers to approve the $5.1 billion budget gap projected for the 2005 fiscal year. Or simply to cut spending by a specified amount and apply the funds to a reduction in taxes. If such a box were on the form, there would be a run on No. 2 pencils, as taxpayers rushed to make the most basic allocation our legislature denies them.