ALBANY – Legislative leaders lined up one after another at the state Capitol yesterday to claim credit for the first on-time budget since 1984.

The final product omits details on how the state will spend roughly $1.5 billion; includes $1 billion in new taxes, and provides for slightly more than half the level of Medicaid cost-containment that Governor Pataki had pleaded with legislators to approve.

Yet the governor, who expressed serious concern last week over the cost and contents of the legislative budget that was then taking shape, greeted reporters and staff yesterday with a smile, happy to claim a reformist victory for the people of the Empire State.

“Let me just say I am extremely pleased that finally, after 21 years, New York State has an on-time budget,” Mr. Pataki said to applause from his staff. “For the first time since I’ve been governor, come April 1 we will not be sitting down trying to figure out how to send up emergency bills to keep the government functioning from week to week.”

Lawmakers approved Mr. Pataki’s proposals to change the corporate-income-tax structure so that companies are taxed only on in-state sales, to introduce a preferred-drug list into the state’s Medicaid program, and to establish a committee that would identify under-utilized hospitals and nursing homes to be closed.

They rejected a tax on nursing homes and did not include funds to convert a not-for-profit health-maintenance organization, HIP, into a private insurer.

They imposed a sales-tax increase of 0.125% on New York City and surrounding counties. That means the levy in the city will decline to 8.5 % from the current 8.625%, rather than dipping by twice as much as it had been scheduled to do.

The legislators also agreed to a raft of increases in motor-vehicle fees, and they approved a hike in the mortgage recording tax.

They backed off, however, on a threat to retain a temporary surcharge in the income tax, which is set to expire in January.

Agreements have not yet been reached on how to divide the $1.1 billion in federal welfare assistance to needy families or how to spend $200 million in federal aid for updating the state’s voting system.

Another $150 million in state environmental funds also remained unaccounted for in the budget approved yesterday.

Those negotiations could go on for weeks.

But the war that Mr. Pataki had declared over state spending on Medicaid looked more like a brushfire by yesterday afternoon, with legislators saying negotiations this week have reduced that debate to a squabble over no more than $300 million.

A major sticking point is the composition of the committee that will oversee the closing of health-care facilities.

Legislators continue to disagree with Mr. Pataki on whether the federal government will find its package of Medicaid changes sufficient to qualify the state for $1.5 billion in additional federal aid.

They also disagree on whether the cuts will jeopardize a cap on the local share of Medicaid costs approved by lawmakers last week.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, the Democrat of Manhattan who is chairman of the Committee on Health, said a final agreement on health care is near.

“I don’t think the argument that the Medicaid budget somehow jeopardizes the cap has any merit,” Mr. Gottfried said. “We are very close to negotiating a three-way agreement with the governor.”

The on-time budget was a mixed victory for Mr. Pataki, whose decision to depart from the decades-long practice of private negotiations in favor of public discussions accelerated this year’s process, but whose insistence on Medicaid cost-containment was in large part overlooked.

Mr. Pataki stressed that while the budget was passed on deadline, it was not, in his view, finished.

“There is more that has to be done,” Mr. Pataki said. “And we will continue to fight.”

As passed, the budget will cost the state $106.6 billion in the coming fiscal year, or $1.1 billion more than the one outlined by Mr. Pataki 10 weeks ago, according to Assembly staff.

Mr. Pataki has repeatedly described the legislative plan as too expensive, and he did not rule out the use of his veto power to reduce spending.

The governor did not identify specific areas where a veto might be invoked, saying he still hopes to negotiate with legislative leaders in the next few days.

Mr. Pataki may be reluctant to exercise his veto power after a string of embarrassing overrides two years ago.

Yet continuing the negotiations will not be easy.

Speaker Sheldon Silver, the Democrat of Manhattan who leads the Assembly, opened a press conference late yesterday afternoon by listing a number of items that would be off the negotiating table.

He also implied that the Legislature, not the governor, is responsible for delivering a budget on deadline.

But Senator Joseph Bruno, a Republican from Rensselaer who is majority leader of the upper chamber, struck a conciliatory note, acknowledging Mr. Pataki’s critical role in accelerating the budget process.

Mr. Bruno also predicted negotiations could be made over the next few days.

“I think there is a fundamental change here in Albany in the budget process, in governing,” Mr. Bruno said. “There’s much more of a togetherness.”