EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. (AP) – Gov. George Pataki promised Thursday to work with lawmakers to retool parts of their state budget and use his veto if needed to revise what legislative leaders say is a $112.4 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts Saturday.

Pataki said the plan could be as much as $115 billion.

“I’m pleased it’s done on time and there are some very positive things, like some of the tax cuts, like some of the capital for schools in New York,” Pataki said. “I do have real concerns the budget spends too much.”

“We’re going to have to make changes, significant changes, to have a budget that’s acceptable to me,” Pataki said. “Most of it takes effect unless vetoed by the governor. I certainly don’t see vetoing the budget en masse. There will be, if we don’t reach agreement, certain elements that are vetoed.”

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno wouldn’t say if the Legislature has the votes to override any vetoes.

“We are totally confident what we did is responsible,” Bruno said. “I’m confident the comptroller is going to certify the budget as balanced.”

He said the Legislature’s budget proposal increases the state’s debt by $3.7 billion over the $8 billion Pataki proposed. That debt consists mostly of school and public college construction spread out over years. Bruno scoffed at the latest dismal projections by Pataki budget Director John Cape of future budget gaps that would be exacerbated by the Legislature’s budget.

Bruno then told a joke about three accountants interviewing for a job. He said the first answered that two plus two is four, the second said two plus two is six, and the third said two plus two is whatever the boss wants it to be.

“I think John Cape might have been interviewed that (last) way,” Bruno said. “Is he a lawyer? That would explain it.”

“He’s hit a new low,” Cape said of Bruno, who last week said the budget director should go back to kindergarten to learn to count. “I am not, and have never been, an attorney,” Cape deadpanned. “I consider this a smack against me and my whole family.”

Cape, however, was serious about the numbers. He said his projections of budget gaps are based on the state’s official numbers following all accounting and Securities and Exchange Commission rules.

He agreed the Legislature’s budget doesn’t have a deficit for 2006-07, will be balanced and that the comptroller will probably certify it as complete. But that’s because it will be balanced by the state’s reserves, Cape said.

Bruno also defended the tax cuts this election year, saying it was the result of a current surplus he estimates at more than $4 billion: “We have a surplus in revenue? It goes back to the people.”

The Legislature started passing budget bills Wednesday on the agreement reached Tuesday night. The $112.4 billion plan would increase spending by more than $1.6 billion over Pataki’s proposal and return hundreds of dollars in tax credits and “rebate” checks to most New Yorkers. School aid would be increased by $1.1 billion, a record 6.9 percent.

Pataki proposed a $110.6 billion budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year. The current budget totals $106 billion and includes a $2 billion to $4 billion surplus.

The governor said Thursday that the lawmakers’ budget omitted some proposed reforms that he’s going to try to reinstate for business and education.

Pataki criticized lawmakers changing his $500 proposed education tax credit for tutoring and private school tuition for families in poorly performing schools into a child tax credit up to $330 based on a sliding income scale for having a child between the ages of 4 and 17. Pataki’s plan would have been aimed at lower and middle income families living in districts with poorly performing schools. Pataki’s credit would be for tutoring, after-school programs, and could be used for private school tuition.

“We wanted to see direct parental involvement in that education decision-making process, and neither one of those exists under their proposal,” Pataki said.