The political battle over the West Side rail yards moved to Albany the moment the board of directors at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted unanimously March 31 to approve a $720 million bid for air rights over the 13-acre parcel from the Jets. The owners of Madison Square Garden had hoped to derail a new Manhattan arena with a richer proposal of their own but failed to convince a single board member they were serious about development.

As news of the vote reached the state Capitol, lawmakers lined up along somewhat unpredictable lines to voice support or disapproval of a project that some described as corporate welfare and others hailed as a source of unionized jobs. The Empire State Development Corporation, a Pataki-controlled agency charged with increasing and retaining private industry jobs in the state, is expected to approve the project later this month. The Public Authorities Control Board, run by Mr. Pataki and the two legislative leaders, is another story.

Mr. Pataki’s vote is not in question. He and Mayor Bloomberg are perhaps the biggest backers of the stadium. They committed $300 million each in state and city subsidies for the project, and both seem to view it as a necessary first step in the bid to win the 2012 Olympics for New York. But the other members of the board, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, take a different view. Both rejected the governor’s proposed stadium subsidy in the budget that was passed last month. And both have veto power over the plan to sell state-controlled property – in this case, the air rights – to a private developer.

All of which means that Messrs. Bruno and Silver will have enormous negotiating clout against Mr. Pataki as the legislative session continues. Used unwisely, this leverage could result in retribution for Mr. Silver from the Democratic lawmakers who have come out in support of the stadium. At the moment, however, it means legislative proposals that would otherwise have nothing to do with a construction project in New York are now being floated as serious negotiating tools. Far from a Manhattan issue, the West Side stadium could trigger political battles on bills that, in most years, wouldn’t raise a peep.

Take, for example, a proposal that has been stuck in committees for years to reform the state labor law. Under current law, construction workers who are injured on the job are entitled to collect worker compensation and to sue their employer for damages, even if the accident is the result of worker negligence. This kind of double recovery, not allowed in any other state, arises from the fact that labor law in New York predates worker compensation law. Until now, trial lawyers have vexed small contractors by successfully fighting bills in both chambers that would change the law.

According to one veteran lawmaker, efforts to repeal sections 240 and 241 of the labor law this year are being led by Woody Johnson, owner of the Jets. The lawmaker said Mr. Johnson is threatening to withdraw his interest in the stadium unless legislators agree to change the labor law. Calling the current law “a millstone around the necks of builders,” the lawmaker said changing it could reduce liability insurance premiums by as much as one-third. He said Mr. Silver’s response to this legislation in the coming weeks should strongly influence Mr. Bruno’s decision on the stadium.

The bill’s sponsor in the Assembly is Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, a Democrat from Rochester. Mr. Morelle said it is unlikely that Mr. Johnson would threaten legislators on the stadium even as he is awaiting a decision by Messrs. Bruno and Silver on state subsidies and stadium approval. “That sounds like a crazy demand to me,” Mr. Morelle said, “unless you wanted the project to fail. I would not advise those who want the stadium built to tie those two issues together because that’s a recipe for defeat.”

But an insurance consultant with close ties to the legislature, Fred Buse, said such a deal between Mr. Johnson and the legislature makes sense. He said the 75,000-seat stadium, which some now estimate at costing as much as $2.2 billion, is grand enough to force a major change in current law. “For a construction project that expensive and that big,” Mr. Buse said, “I can see something like that happening.” Mr. Buse said upstate iron workers in the past have agreed to waive their right to sue under sections 240 and 241 in exchange for increased pay. He said downstate labor leaders might agree to something similar in this case.

Such an arrangement could give unionized workers a competitive advantage in bids that involved nonunionized labor. It would also put liability costs closer to where they are in New Jersey, where double recovery is not possible. “The Jets stadium is going to be a union job, and if those unions waived their rights for higher wages then you’ve reformed the system in a way that only benefits union contractors,” Mr. Buse said. “If you get organized labor to support this, that’s a huge change. It was being proposed by upstate union workers, but this Jets thing might change that.”