Assemblyman Jeff Brown, a minority member of the Democratic Assembly who lives in Manlius, is reported to have explained his vote against last week's 2005-06 budget by saying "Getting an on-time budget is only half the battle."

He's right.

Yes, the Legislature deserves credit for not having the 21st late state budget in a row, but like those baseball-record holders accused of taking steroids, there is a need to put an asterisk by this year's record of coming under the wire. While the Legislature technically passed a $105 billion budget on time, they didn't necessarily complete it.

There are still many controversial and expensive issues outstanding that total close to another $1.5 billion. Among them are funding for higher education, Medicaid reform, implementation of the Help America Vote Act and looking at hospital costs. These are the types of issues that have usually been the cause of late budgets in the past. This time, to show the public that they could do an on-time budget, they put these items in a holding pen.

By parking such controversies out of sight, at least temporarily, from the public, they can claim a public-relations victory of sorts. And they needed to. There is little doubt the losses by several members of the Assembly and Senate last fall and a couple of more close calls have spurred the Legislature to act.

Lawmakers needed to pass something, if only to counter the charge that our state Legislature is the most dysfunctional in the nation. The pressure was on to pass something, anything - good, bad or indifferent. And they did. But technically meeting a deadline doesn't mean that the hard work that is required to put a budget in place is done.

It is still not clear whether Gov. George Pataki will veto any parts of the budget bills that spend more than $1.5 billion beyond his January proposal, which increases or creates new fees and taxes worth, by some estimates, as much as $1 billion. It is also reported that his plan also increased the state's short and long-term debt by billions.

The governor has held out the thought that he thinks the Legislature may have overstepped constitutional authority in last week's budget bills. So what was passed may be flawed enough to end up in the courts.

For critics who contend the this budget is imperfect, they are only half right, because with so much still undone, this is a budget in name only. Vetoes, lawsuits and/or further haggling over details will prove that beyond a doubt. It is wrong to tout a budget deal, until the outstanding issues are either resolved or Albany tells the public they are off the table. Until then it is time to put away the celebratory balloons and press releases - there is more work to be done.

Cosentino is a former Mayor of Auburn. He can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com