An attempt by Albany lawmakers to strip the governor of budget-making power has resulted in an unlikely alliance between the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, and his Republican challengers for governor.

Candidates for the 2006 nomination for governor are all firmly opposed to a proposal on the November ballot that would give broad powers to the state Legislature to create its own budget. While differing on ways to reduce spending and debt, the candidates all agree that they, not the 212 lawmakers, should be in charge of the budget.

Republicans William Weld, Randy Daniels, John Faso, and Patrick Manning, all of whom are declared or likely candidates, said in telephone interviews with The New York Sun that Proposal 1 would give lawmakers a powerful incentive to miss budget deadlines and would lead to increased spending and higher taxes by diminishing the governor’s authority over the process.

Mr. Spitzer, who is running for governor as a Democrat, has said Proposal 1 would only worsen the state’s budget problems. He has likened the proposal to giving every member of a debt-afflicted family access to the checking account. That puts him at odds with his fellow Democrat, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who supports Proposal 1.

Mr. Spitzer’s view is right on the money, Republican candidates said. “It’s a naked and cynical power-grab,” said Mr. Daniels, a Bronx resident who served as New York’s secretary of state from April 2001 to September 2005. “This is sham reform.”

Mr. Weld, a New York native who was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1990 and 1994, called Proposal 1 a “prescription for higher spending and higher taxes.”

And Mr. Faso, a former Assembly minority leader who narrowly lost a race for state comptroller in 2002, said the proposal “would guarantee late budgets” by giving an “incentive for the Legislature to wait out the governor.”

Proposal 1 would tilt the balance of power in the budget system toward the Legislature for the first time since 1927, when voters approved a constitutional amendment that gave the governor the power to initiate the budget process. Governor Al Smith persuaded lawmakers to submit his reform plan to voters by arguing that the governor has a better overarching understanding of state government than individual lawmakers.

Under Proposal 1, the start of the fiscal year would be moved to May 1 from April 1. If the Legislature has not voted on all appropriations bills by that date, a contingency budget, essentially the existing budget, would go into effect. The Legislature could then create an entirely new budget, and the governor would have line-item veto power over only parts of the contingency budget amended by lawmakers.

Under the current arrangement, the Legislature can amend the governor’s proposed budget by slashing or reducing appropriation items included in the bills or by adding separate items. If the budget is late, the governor and lawmakers approve temporary emergency spending bills.

Mr. Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, have joined forces in supporting Proposal 1, which they argue provides a better safety net for the state if the budget isn’t passed on time.

“It’s going to pass because people support budget reform,” Mr. Bruno told the Sun. “We have a dysfunctional budget system in this state. You know it’s dysfunctional. Twenty years of late budgets is not an accident.” State lawmakers have been late in passing budgets 20 out of the last 21 years.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Silver, Eileen Larrabee, said the speaker “respectfully disagrees” with Mr. Spitzer’s position on Proposal 1.

Backers of the state constitutional amendment, which include government watchdog groups such as Common Cause/NY, and the New York Public Interest Research Group, say it would make the budget process more transparent by creating an independent budget office that would supply the Legislature with nonpartisan information on state finances and by requiring that state agencies provide to the public budget requests they makes to the governor. Supporters also argue that Proposal 1 would bring New York in line with the budgetary powers that most other states grant to their legislatures.

Mr. Manning, an assemblyman from Hopewell Junction, told the Sun that his colleagues would act like “kids in a candy store” if they were allowed to form their own budget. A better reform measure, he said, would be a law that would bar spending above the rate of inflation, with adjustments made for population changes.

“Someone needs to be the adult,” he said. “The governor should have the power to be an adult.” Mr. Manning said he is the first state lawmaker publicly to oppose the measure and said other “rank-and-file” assemblymen have taken his side on Proposal 1 but fear speaking out.

Mr. Weld, who has been endorsed by the chairman of the state Republican Party, said giving power to lawmakers to craft a budget would be a “complete disaster.”

“If we know anything, it’s that legislators know if they spend more money, then their constituents in their individual districts will love them more,” he said. He said it’s “not surprising” that Mr. Bruno has thrown his support behind the proposal because it “augments legislative power.”

John McCardle, a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, said the Republican contenders “clearly don’t understand” Proposal 1. “It prevents governors from holding the budget hostage to whatever they desire,” he said.

Three-time losing gubernatorial candidate Thomas Golisano, a founder of the Independence Party of New York who has changed his party registration to Republican, did not respond over several days to calls for comment on the ballot referendum.