ALBANY — The escalating power struggle between Governor Spitzer and the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, has brought the capital to a standstill that threatens to make the Pataki years seem harmonious in comparison.

The strife culminated last night in a complete breakdown in negotiations on the final day of the legislative session that derailed agreements on a swath of high-profile issues and indefinitely put on hold much of the governor’s agenda.

Among the victims of the gridlock were Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, the governor’s proposal to tighten campaign finance regulations, legislative and judicial pay raises, legislation to expand the state’s criminal DNA database, a capital spending plan, an overhaul of a costly construction mandate known as the Wicks Law, and Senate confirmations of three SUNY trustees and the chairmen of the Empire State Development Corporation. All sides, however, agreed that lawmakers would return in mid-July for an extra session in a bid to resuscitate talks.

Emerging last night after rounds of closed-door talks, Messrs. Spitzer and Bruno angrily pinned the blame for the deadlock on each other.
Mr. Spitzer portrayed the 78-year-old Senate leader as an obstructionist wedded to the status quo. He said Mr. Bruno refused to sign on to many agreements because the governor wouldn’t grant him a discretionary capital package worth almost $500 million that Mr. Spitzer described as “horrendous” pork “dripping with fat.”

“This is a session that had enormous potential but has ended with … significant disappointment,” Mr. Spitzer said at an evening press conference. “This session did not fail for a lack of leadership or energy or determination in the executive branch of government, but rather because the state Senate would not embrace the agenda to energize government and the economy.”

Mr. Bruno accused the governor, a former two-term state attorney general, of acting as a bullying prosecutor and holding hostage many pieces of legislation in order to pressure him into agreeing to a campaign finance reform package that would scale back political contributions across the board and ban money from limited liability companies.

Mr. Bruno said Mr. Spitzer, who has made no secret of his wish to oust Republicans from power in the Senate for the first time in decades, was motivated by selfish political concerns. “Campaign finance reform is an obsession for some reason that I’m still trying to understand other than it’s intended by its content to make New York State a one-party state,” Mr. Bruno said at a separate news conference.

Mr. Bruno, who is battling to preserve his party’s two-seat majority in the chamber, said the governor’s campaign finance propose would “stifle a member’s ability to communicate with the public.”

He said: “I think it’s sad for the people of this state … that the governor establishes a position that nothing happens unless we get an agreement on campaign finance reform. … I don’t know about you, in your lives when you get up in the morning, do your children, your significant others ask you, ‘What’s the status of campaign finance reform?'”

A high-level Spitzer official said Mr. Bruno was willing to accept a more limited campaign finance package but was overruled by his Republican colleagues.

While each leader pointed to specific disagreements, the collapse of negotiations was the climax of a brewing battle between the two feisty leaders fueled by opposing political strategies.

By walking away with little accomplished, Mr. Bruno is able to undercut Mr. Spitzer’s famous campaign pledge to “change everything” in Albany and present the governor as an ineffective leader who is ignoring pocketbook issues such as tax relief.

After agreeing to significant concessions in budget negotiations earlier in the year, a move that lawmakers said made him appear weak-willed, Mr. Spitzer seemed to take a tougher stand this week. Rather than back down on his pledge to rein in campaign finance rules, Mr. Spitzer hopes to come away with a stronger case for removing Republicans from power to present to voters in next year’s legislative elections, political observers say.

Although Mr. Spitzer directed his anger at Mr. Bruno, the Democrat-led Assembly also played a major role in blocking progress on key legislation, including approval for Mr. Bloomberg’s controversial anti-traffic plan to charge motorists a fee for driving into much of Manhattan and use the revenue to pay for a slew of mass transit projects.

Lawmakers said the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, refused to agree to set up an expert commission that would review the plan and submit an implementation report to the Legislature by February for approval. Assembly members, many of whom are critical of the plan, feared the commission would make congestion pricing a fait accompli.

Amid the lack of progress, was a piece of good news for New York City consumers. Both houses passed legislation to eliminate the city’s sales tax on clothing and footwear. Currently, only items costing less than $110 are exempt from a 4% sales tax.