ALBANY – A top state lawmaker with veto power over subsidies for the proposed Jets stadium in Manhattan yesterday introduced a potentially explosive ingredient to the already complicated debate over the project. The majority leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, proposed that the roughly $1 billion being requested from the city and the state come from private investors instead.

The proposal came just one day before a state Supreme Court judge in Manhattan was expected to rule on whether the Metropolitan Transportation Authority acted unfairly in awarding development rights above its West Side rail yards to the Jets, who bid $150 million less than did the owners of Madison Square Garden.

And the proposal came two days before a state board was expected to vote on whether to approve issuing $300 million in low-interest bonds for a state economic development agency to finance construction of a platform over the yards. Governor Pataki confirmed late yesterday that a vote on the bonds by the Public Authorities Control Board would take place tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Mr. Bruno, who like Mr. Pataki and the other key stadium proponent, Mayor Bloomberg, is a Republican, made the surprise announcement that he has been talking with private investors following a press conference on an unrelated matter outside his Capitol offices yesterday morning. Mr. Bruno referred to “several” investors capable of contributing to the project’s cost. He declined to name names.

“There are private-sector investors who believe that that entire project can be funded with private investor money,” Mr. Bruno, Republican of Rensselaer, said. “If it’s a good business deal, it’s a good business deal for the private sector. Now just think about the ramifications of that, if the $300 million from the state disappears and even the city money disappears. What are the implications of that?”

It could not be determined if Mr. Bruno, in speaking of “that entire project,” was including the Jets’ share of the overall cost, roughly $1.6 billion, or just the $600 million in direct public subsidies that the Bloomberg and Pataki administrations negotiated with the team, which would like to move its home games to the new stadium from the Meadowlands in New Jersey for the 2009 season.

The proposal by the Senate leader to tap private sources follows months of outward skepticism on the stadium project by Mr. Bruno and the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver. Both men’s endorsement is needed for the financing plan, which Messrs. Pataki and Bloomberg have said must be approved now if New York City is to have any chance of being selected next month as host of the 2012 Olympics. The two legislative leaders have enumerated numerous concerns over the project, ranging from the shared use of space at the site to the conduct of the bidding process.

The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to vote on a host city July 6 in Singapore and is expected to issue a preliminary report Monday on the status of host-city applicants. Finalists are New York, Madrid, Moscow, London, and Paris.

Mr. Pataki has urged a vote on subsidies for a platform over the yards and a retractable roof over the stadium ahead of the preliminary report, though sources said it has already been written.

“This is the week,” Mr. Pataki said Tuesday. “June 6 is the deadline for the International Olympic Committee to see that New York’s facilities are all approved and ready to go, so we will have a PACB meeting this week.”

First proposed more than four years ago, the domed, 75,000-seat stadium – and potential Olympic venue, and supplemental city convention space – has been held up in Albany for the past two months because of the reluctance of Messrs. Bruno and Silver to approve the public financing.

The two legislative leaders and Mr. Pataki each control one of the three votes on the Public Authorities Control Board, but the legislators have already exhausted the two opportunities they are allowed to table a decision on single items.

Either legislative leader could also postpone a vote, however, simply by not showing up for a meeting, though Mr. Bruno said yesterday he has instructed his representative on the board to attend. A spokeswoman for Mr. Silver, Eileen Larrabee, said late yesterday she did not know if the Manhattan Democrat had yet decided to attend the meeting.

A vote on the stadium could also be precluded by a court ruling today against the Jets.

One further potential delay: Two sources said yesterday that the Supreme Court judge presiding over four related lawsuits against the MTA, Justice Herman Cahn, might postpone a decision because a member of his family is ailing.

Mr. Bruno’s proposal on private capital caught the Jets flatfooted, with a spokeswoman for the team saying she had never heard of any discussions at any time between the state and private investors over the stadium project. The spokeswoman, Marissa Shorenstein, said such a proposal would not be feasible, as the financing has already been arranged in anticipation of low-interest loans from the state.

Private investors would undoubtedly expect a higher rate of return than the state.

“We’ve always said that the New York State Convention Center is more than a sound business investment,” Ms. Shorenstein said.

“It is a great public-private partnership which will reap hundreds of millions in new tax revenue for the city and state, create thousands of jobs for New Yorkers, and finally bring the types of events to New York City that we have been forced to turn away for too long.”

Mr. Bruno’s proposal was one more sign of how contentious and politically volatile the stadium project has become here. Rival armies of lobbyists – most of them formerly associated with one of the two legislative leaders or Mr. Pataki – have been pressing lawmakers for months to vote for or against the plan. Their work, which has cost the Jets and Madison Square Garden many millions of dollars, most of it in television air time, has set a new high-water mark for spending on lobbying for a single cause.

With a critical vote on the Olympics scheduled for next month, Mr. Bruno’s latest announcement represents one more potential reason to delay a vote. If the vote is taken tomorrow, however, Mr. Bruno seemed to signal that he would be reluctant to approve state subsidies for the Jets. He and Mr. Silver have committed so far to finance a stadium only if New York City is chosen at Singapore as the host city for the Olympics seven years from now.

“We’re not planning on voting in support on Friday until we see what we see, and that’s what I’ve been describing for five minutes, we’re still waiting to see,” Mr. Bruno said. “We’re open and objective and waiting to see how we progress along.”