ALBANY – Governor Pataki is trying to position himself as a serious presidential hopeful even with his legislative agenda in shambles.

Two days before Mr. Pataki embarks on a trip to the first primary state, New Hampshire, a defiant state Legislature overrode his major vetoes, voting to restore billions of dollars in spending that the governor claims is unconstitutional.

The large-scale rejection of the vetoes represented a bold move by lawmakers to reassert their powers in the aftermath of a court decision that bolstered the governor’s role in crafting the state budget. Lawmakers are essentially daring Mr. Pataki to impound the money, an action that would likely ignite another court battle over the scope of the executive branch’s power. The Democratic Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, didn’t “feel like rolling over and playing dead,” an Assembly source said.

Their actions also were a rebuff to Mr. Pataki’s attempt late in his third term to impose a conservative agenda on a state government that has for years spent at a higher rate than inflation and has resisted legislation that would threaten the dominance of unions and other powerful interest groups.

Lawmakers tacked on about a billion dollars in extra spending, bringing the total budget to $112 billion, about a $7 billion increase over the prior year, according to the governor’s office. They wiped out Mr. Pataki’s efforts to give parents a tax credit that would offset the costs of private school tuition. They refused – at least for the time being – to establish more charter schools in the state. They tossed out a property tax rebate program because it would have forced school districts to put limits on spending and thus property taxes. They rolled back many of the governor’s tax cuts, including the elimination of a marriage penalty and a reduction of the income tax rate.

The overrides came on the same day that the state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, released a report that brought New York’s reputation as a high-tax state into sharp relief.

The study, which detailed how increases in local property taxes across New York have obliterated Albany tax cuts, could complicate Mr. Pataki’s efforts to present himself as a fiscal conservative as he introduces himself to voters in key states like New Hampshire. Tomorrow, he’s scheduled to speak at an event at Bedford, N.H., his first trip to the state since he fell ill and was hospitalized last winter.

The comptroller’s office found that per capital property taxes in New York are 49% higher than the national average, and property taxes measured as a share of personal income are 28% higher. Outside New York City, property taxes are 73% above the national per capita average.

Between 1995 and 2005, local property taxes increased 60%, twice the rate of inflation. Most of that increase took place during 2000 to 2005, when taxes went up 42%, compared to inflation of 13%, the office said. One county raised taxes by more than 90%.

Most strikingly, the report found that Mr. Pataki’s pet School Tax Relief program, under which state funds are used to give homeowners tax exemptions, actually hurts taxpayers by encouraging school districts to increase spending. “While STAR indisputably provides property tax relief for those receiving it, its long-term impact may well be an overall increase in State and local taxes,” the report said.

This year, Mr. Pataki wanted to expand STAR by giving $400 checks to homeowners in school districts that have spending caps. Lawmakers balked at the restriction and instead put in their budget a program that gave checks to all homeowners. Mr. Pataki, citing a 2004 Court of Appeals ruling upholding his budget powers, vetoed the Legislature’s program, calling it an illegal substitution. He declared the spending void. The court ruled that lawmakers cannot change the language of the governor’s budget appropriations.

By overriding the governor, lawmakers decided they would rather eliminate the program altogether than have districts submit to a spending cap. The Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, said yesterday he might have been willing to go along with the plan but couldn’t convince the Democrat-controlled Assembly.

Mr. Bruno said lawmakers might be forced to take the governor to court, saying a legal showdown could potentially drag on for years. He repeatedly said the overrides did not mean that negotiations were over. Rather, he said he would be urging the governor to change his mind about what was unconstitutional. Mr. Pataki insisted that negotiations were now over. “We have a completed budget,” he said.

The winner of the budget battle, at least for now, appears to be Mr. Silver. When the houses hammered out their budget last month, Mr. Silver wanted major increases to school aid while Mr. Bruno fought for property tax relief checks. In the end, the budget includes a $1.3 billion increase in school aid – with financing for New York City school capital projects. The property tax checks, meanwhile, won’t likely make it out of the governor’s office.

Mr. Pataki also declared about $1.3 billion in Medicaid spending unconstitutional, saying the money essentially erased his reforms to the program. Lawmakers, he said, appropriated money that would negate cost saving measures aimed at hospitals and nursing homes. Mr. Silver wanted that money restored. But by overriding, he can expect the health workers union to sue the governor and to wage an ad campaign against him.

The governor vetoed more than 200 items worth about $2.9 billion in spending and tax cuts. About $2 billion of that the governor claimed couldn’t be overridden for legal reasons. Legislators sustained several vetoes, some for technical reasons. Those items had little impact on spending but affected which branch of government would spend certain funds.