Democratic gubernatorial candidate Thomas Suozzi vowed yesterday that, if elected, he would spend $2.15 billion in state money to lessen the local property tax burden.

The plan comes less than a week after the state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, released a report showing that per capita property taxes in New York are 49% above the national average.

Mr. Suozzi, an underdog candidate who is taking on Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said his plan targets the 43 counties with the highest property taxes. The plan would require the school districts in those counties to cap spending increases at an average of 5% over five years.

The director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, E.J. McMahon, called the plan “shaky,” saying it relies on “some broad assumptions about increased col lections.”

He did say the cap is intriguing.

“Supporting any kind of limit on school district spending actually puts Suozzi to the right of Senate Republicans,” Mr. McMahon said via e-mail. That, he said, says “less about Suozzi than it does about Republicans.”

Mr. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, has been focusing on property taxes since before he entered the race. He raised property taxes during his first year in office, saying he needed to help pull his county out of financial despair, but has since pushed for relief.

His plan also earmarks $335 million for troubled school districts outside New York City in the form of $1,100 in new funding for every student. Funding for the two-pronged plan relies on $5 billion in state savings that Mr. Suozzi outlined last month.

Mr. Suozzi has billed himself as a reformer who will not be influenced by Albany insiders or special interests. During a speech at Adelphi University yesterday, he also called for Mr. Spitzer to agree to debate him and pledged to stay in the race through a September primary.

“Okay, tough guy, come and debate me about what you’re going to do to improve the state of New York,” the Associated Press quoted Mr. Suozzi as saying about his opponent. “Tell me specifically and the tell the voters specifically.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, Christine Anderson, said the attorney general has been talking about the “urgent need to provide property tax relief” and would continue to lay out proposals to reduce state mandates that lead to higher property taxes.

“He’s begun by proposing solutions that address the underlying causes of high property taxes – whether it be reforming our health care system to reduce the Medicaid burden or revitalizing the upstate economy to increase property values,” she said.