Negotiations between Governor Pataki and lawmakers over legislative pay raises, a civil confinement bill for sexual predators, charter schools, a multi-billion dollar development project and other issues came to standstill yesterday evening.

At the end of a one-day special session called by Mr. Pataki, lawmakers said they were planning to return home today and that they were a long from sorting out their differences with the governor, whom they said had overplayed his hand. Lawmakers are hungry for a pay raise, but Mr. Pataki said he wouldn’t reward them with more money unless they agreed to a laundry list of demands.

“They’re going the way they’ve always gone. That’s wait until after the 11th hour and then the Assembly starts to finally get serious about it,” Mr. Pataki told The Associated Press.

“There’s no reason we can’t get a couple of very good bills — expansion of the charter schools and a very good civil confinement bill,” he added. “But we’re not there yet.”

The day was not entirely without legislative accomplishments. After months of delay, lawmakers passed a bill known as “Timothy’s Law,” named after a child that committed suicide, which would require health insurers to increase their coverage to mental health patients. The Senate approved dozens of appointments made by Mr. Pataki, including his nomination of Jeffrey Wiesenfeld to another term on the CUNY board. The Senate also approved 13 judicial nominations, while blocking two nominees to Court of Claims that were picked by the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver.

Hopes for a grand deal, however, grew dim. Lawmakers blamed the lack of progress on Mr. Pataki, whom they said lengthened his laundry list of demands. They said, for instance, he asked them to raise the statewide charter school cap to 300 from 100, increasing his demand by 50 schools.

They also said Mr. Pataki demanded that Mr. Silver approve the $4 billion Atlantic Yards private development plan to build a basketball arena and 16 mostly residential towers on 22 acres near downtown Brooklyn. Mr. Silver could green-light the project on Wednesday when the Public Authorities Control Board, of which Mr. Silver is a member, meets next week.

The governor called the special session to come to an agreement on a civil confinement bill to keep mentally ill convicted sexual predators locked up after they’ve completed their prison sentence.

Sources close to the governor said Mr. Pataki pushed hard for an agreement on a civil confinement bill but Mr. Silver refused to budge. “He never wanted to do it,” one source said. The source said Mr. Silver came to the table demanding that lawmakers get paid using a permanent Cost of Living Adjustment index, similar to one employed by Congress.

Assembly Democrats have rejected a Republican Senate version of the bill that would limit the options a jury has for deciding on the fate of a sexual offender. The Court of Appeals ruled last month that the state had wrongly confined 126 sexual offenders and ordered that they receive hearings to determine if they still pose a danger. Mr. Pataki is pushing for a bill that would clear up the constitutional concerns.

Democrats said the governor was asking for too much. “Take it or leave it isn’t a social policy. It’s an attitude,” said a Democratic assemblyman from Westchester, Richard Brodsky, a critic of Mr. Pataki during the governor’s three terms.

“We aren’t coming back,” the Republican majority leader Joseph Bruno said in an evening press conference with reporters after hanging up the phone with Mr. Silver. Still, he tacked on the rhetorical equivalent of an asterisk on his declaration, saying, “That’s the plan.”

Albany veterans here recall when the governor and lawmakers waited until virtually the break of dawn on December 18, 1998 to declare they had reached a deal: Mr. Pataki signed off on a 38% pay raise and legislators agreed to establish 100 charter schools in the state.

If the two sides don’t reach a deal, lawmakers won’t be eligible for a pay raise until as early January 2009, which is 10 years removed from their last hike. The 212 legislators make a base salary of $79,500 a year, not including stipends for leadership roles.

A failure to reach agreement would place matters in the hands of Governor-elect Spitzer, who said yesterday that “Civil commitment and charter schools are important issues that need to be addressed, either in the current special session or early next year.” Mr. Spitzer said he’d oppose a legislative pay raise “unless and until” Albany passes “ethics, lobbying, elections, campaign finance and budget reform.”