ALBANY, April 1 - Now, the ball is back in Gov. George E. Pataki's court.
As the state's new fiscal year began Friday with a budget in place for the first time in 21 years, Governor Pataki found himself in a difficult political position: trying to share the credit for its passage while working to undo or renegotiate many provisions of it that the State Legislature passed without his approval.
Feelings of relief, finality and celebration around the capital were tempered Friday by uncertainty because the Legislature and the governor remained divided over many important issues.
Mr. Pataki's office circulated copies of proposed new budget language to the Legislature. And issues that had seemed settled when the budget was passed on Thursday - including the Legislature's rejection of the governor's proposed tuition increases at state universities, and its decision not to raise taxes on nursing homes - were suddenly on the table again.
Whether Governor Pataki will be able to persuade lawmakers to make major changes in their budget remains to be seen, but he does have a few arrows in his quiver.
Foremost among them is the veto pen, which he has until April 12 to use. With several strokes of the pen, he could potentially cut hundreds of millions of dollars of spending that the Legislature added to the budget if he cannot reach an amicable agreement with lawmakers, a goal everyone claims to share.
But the budget passed both houses of the Legislature Thursday with strong bipartisan majorities, and for the first time in recent memory, even the minority-party leaders were involved and invested in the budget-making process, leading many to believe that it would be easy to muster the votes for veto overrides.
But some lawmakers question whether a Republican-controlled State Senate would move to embarrass Mr. Pataki, who is weighing a run for national office.
The governor has other powers as well. The legislators left $1.1 billion in spending on welfare programs out of its budget because they could not persuade the governor to resubmit his proposal in a way they could accept, but they were unable to amend his proposal because of a recent court decision limiting their budget-making powers.
The spending on welfare programs - including on day care slots for 22,000 children and summer jobs for 8,000 teenagers that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wants - is particularly dear to the Assembly.
Several officials said Friday that while all sides were close to reaching agreement on how to spend the money, the governor appeared to be holding off on the final agreement to try to win some concessions from the Assembly.
One of the biggest looming battles, as always, is over the state's Medicaid program. Governor Pataki made cutting costs in the program a centerpiece of his budget proposal this year, and as he weighs a run for national office and fends off barbs from conservatives who cast him as a big spender, winning cuts would prove an essential victory.
But the Legislature restored nearly $700 million of the $1.1 billion in cuts he called for. So now the governor is working to persuade legislators to find more; one area being explored is a tax increase on nursing homes.
Another, more contentious set of negotiations revolves around the state's health insurance plan for the working poor, Family Health Plus. The governor, who created the program, is continuing to push for cutting some benefits and raising co-payments in the program, officials said. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, called cutting benefits "a nonstarter."
Perhaps the biggest issue is Mr. Pataki's desire to create an independent commission to suggest closing struggling hospitals and nursing homes around New York - akin to the commission that was created to study closing military bases.
The governor has said that the creation of this commission is critical to getting $1.5 billion in federal assistance to help the state overhaul its health care system.
The Senate and the Assembly agreed in principle to the idea, but the deal was mired in divisions over who would serve on the panel, what powers they would have and how to give members appointed from different regions in the state a voice in the process.
Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, expressed satisfaction in the budget that the Legislature passed Thursday but said that he was always willing to listen to other ideas. "I don't think there are going to be major changes," he said. "I think you are going to see some ongoing discussions to see if we can refine or improve any of what is there."
Some of the talks Friday centered on tuition increases at state universities - just a day after lawmakers boasted about averting Governor Pataki's proposed $500-a-year tuition increase.
And there were a host of other issues being discussed, from economic development programs to money for the environment, to plans to convert nonprofit health insurance plans into publicly held, for-profit companies.
Kevin Quinn, a spokesman for Governor Pataki, said in a statement, "The governor is working to make the budget better, and as everyone is aware, staff discussions are ongoing that will allow us to arrive at a final and fiscally responsible budget."
Even in a year marked by talks of health care cuts, the Legislature's budget contained a few provisions that pleased the state's powerful health care unions - including at least $79.5 million that was earmarked to help pay for salary increases and training for health care workers who care for patients at upstate nursing homes.
And it provided $121 million for hospital work force "retention and recruitment" that was widely seen in Albany as a way to soften the blow of a new tax on hospitals the lawmakers enacted.