Governor Pataki telephoned yesterday to warn of the consequences should the legislature over-ride his veto. He was on the blower with the other newspapers, too, and none too soon, it looks like. The state Legislature is poised to throw the state’s finances into crisis with an irresponsible spending plan, and – while the governor doesn’t want to say so – the stunning thing to us is that two of the key figures who might be useful allies of Governor Pataki have gone invisible.

One is the state comptroller, Alan Hevesi. He has been so busy suing the city’s investment banks in concert with his trial lawyer contributors that he has abandoned his main responsibility, the state’s finances. There’s a dispute between Mr. Pataki and the legislature over just how irresponsible the legislature’s spending plan is, and Mr. Hevesi would be a natural referee. But he’s ducking. Maybe he’ll wait until after a ruinous budget is a fait accompli. That way he’ll avoid disturbing his other political paymasters, the public employee unions, but he’ll be way too late to save the taxpayers any money.

Another is the would-be governor, William Weld. He talks a good game about his spending restraint and tax-cutting as governor of Massachusetts. But this is a pivotal moment in New York, and when we reached him yesterday on the phone, all the would-be Sam Houston could do was refer us to his spokeswoman, who ducked. Maybe Mr. Weld is afraid of offending Senator Bruno, the Republican majority leader who is being praised in mailings by 1199/Service Employees International Union. Mr. Bruno has chosen the goodwill of 1199 and the hospital trustees over the interests of the taxpayers of New York, but we’d expect more from Mr. Weld. He claims to want a Massachusetts-style cap on property tax increases on New York State. Mr. Pataki’s budget calls for just such a cap as a condition for property tax relief, and Mr. Pataki’s veto sought to implement that cap. Yet as Mr. Bruno is poised to override the veto, Mr. Weld has all of a sudden lost his vocal cords.

The legislature’s rush to override Mr. Pataki’s budget rather than negotiate with the governor is unseemly. Mr. Pataki has offered compromises that would save the state’s taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The governor told us over the phone yesterday that “an override would be irresponsible,” creating vast out-year budget gaps and eliminating “very important reforms” such as education tax credits and the elimination of the cap on charter schools.

Voters at this point expect the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, to act as a tool of the health-care industrial complex. But what is the point of having a Republican-controlled State Senate when, at the moment that charter schools and education tax credits and restraint in an out-of-control Medicaid budget are all on the table, Mr. Bruno is to pre-emptively surrender to Mr. Silver?

Mr. Pataki is showing leadership in this fight. So has John Faso, who said yesterday, “I don’t think you can be a credible candidate for governor and not support Pataki’s position.” This is a moment when the governor deserves – and the taxpayers need – all the allies they can muster.