As the Bloomberg administration prepares to lobby Albany to lift the cap on charter schools, the City Council is divided on the issue.

Many city lawmakers have long pushed for billions of dollars in additional funding for public schools, viewing the idea of additional charter schools as a threat that could siphon resources from traditional classrooms.

Led by the chairman of the Education Committee, Robert Jackson, a bloc of 14 lawmakers in March introduced a resolution opposing Governor Pataki’s proposal to raise the current limit of 100.

Because state legislation is required to raise the cap, the council has no official say, but the political will of its members could affect the momentum for more charter schools, which are run autonomously from traditional public schools and give principals more authority over curriculum and hiring. Mr. Pataki’s bill was never able to pass the Democrat-led Assembly because of the opposition of the speaker, Sheldon Silver.

In his first State of the State speech, Governor Spitzer called for raising the cap, drawing applause but also a smattering of boos from legislators. “The applause wins,” a smiling Mr. Spitzer said. The governor did not specify how many more charter schools should be created, but the current proposal would increase the statewide cap to 250. At least 50 of the new schools would open in the city.

A powerful city union, the United Federation of Teachers, has made its support for raising the cap conditional on assurances that it would not be tied to budget cuts for public schools and that teachers would have the right to unionize. The UFT contributed to the 2005 campaigns of more than half of the council’s 51 members, including the council speaker, Christine Quinn — and nearly all of the lawmakers who signed on to the resolution opposing more charter schools.

The resolution, which never came to a vote, linked the push for charter schools to the long-running Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit that claimed the state had failed to provide city schoolchildren with a “sound basic education.” The council members called on the Legislature to place a moratorium on additional charter schools “until existing New York City schools are adequately funded.”

With at least $1.93 billion headed to the city schools after a Court of Appeals ruling in November, some council members are indicating an increased openness to charter schools.

“I’m not against lifting the cap,” the council’s deputy majority leader, Leroy Comrie of Queens, said. “I just want to ensure for every school that they have equal and consistent funding.”

The chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, David Weprin of Queens, noted that charter schools were a problem for the union, but he said he saw “no harm in lifting the cap.”

“Obviously they’re not for everybody or every community,” he said, adding: “They’re working in a lot of communities.”

The city has 58 charter schools, serving about 15,000 students.

Mr. Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat, said his position has not changed since he sponsored the council resolution in March. “The city has not done a comprehensive evaluation of charter schools,” he said, adding that he was waiting to see how much funding the Legislature agrees to provide the city.

A council member from the Bronx, Oliver Koppell, criticized charter schools for “cream-skimming” off the public schools and for lacking diversity. “They attract a more uniform group of kids,” he said. “You don’t have the same integration I believe in.”

The council’s Republican leader, James Oddo of Staten Island, lauded the schools for providing parents with a choice to take their children out of public schools that are failing. “I just find it hard to believe that any of my colleagues in government believe choice should stop at the door of charter schools,” he said. “There are kids right now who are destined to go to a school that is not the choice of their parents, that their parents find unacceptable.”

For now, Ms. Quinn is staying out of the debate. She declined, through a spokeswoman, to join Mayor Bloomberg’s call for the cap to be lifted.

An analysis of campaign contributions found that while the teachers union gave to most of the lawmakers who signed onto the resolution opposing a higher cap, it donated equal or greater amounts to council members who have voiced support for more charter schools. Mr. Weprin received a total of $2,750 from the UFT in his 2005 re-election campaign; the union gave just $300 to Mr. Jackson, a chief charter school opponent. The union also contributed $500 to Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. of Queens, who said he supports raising the cap.