ALBANY - New York's debt payments would increase by nearly 50 percent in the next five years if Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposed budget passes, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Thursday.

Spitzer and the Legislature “need to look at the spending patterns that we get locked into, because we see revenue growth going down and spending going up,” DiNapoli said. “At some point something has to give.”

State funded debt would increase 24 percent to $67.3 billion over the five years, according to the report.

While Spitzer's proposal closes a $4.6 billion budget gap for the current fiscal year and reins in spending increases, DiNapoli says the plan will commit New York to future spending that would be impossible to keep up with. Lawmakers would have to close a $7.5 billion budget gap in the next five years.

That means New York taxpayers could accumulate in five years almost as much in debt as the total amount of the state budget this year and the equivalent of buying 67 new Yankee Stadiums at a billion dollars each.

“We're facing very uncertain economic times,” DiNapoli said in a written statement. “If things continue to decline in the financial industry, New York will get hit even harder. The governor made some difficult choices, but there will have to be more. We should only spend within the parameters of what the state can afford.”

Spitzer spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said the administration believes the levels of debt are within normal bounds for the state.

“The executive budget made many tough choices to close a $4.6 billion budget gap, and to dramatically reduce outyear gaps by nearly $8 billion,” Gordon said in a written statement. “Governor Spitzer identified significant and wide-ranging spending reductions that allowed for targeted investments needed to build our economy for the future, while maintaining manageable levels of debt and use nonrecurring resources.”

The governor has prioritized keeping state spending increases within the expected growth of personal income, and the comptroller's report commended him for that.

But officials in the comptroller's office said some of his methods put the state at risk for dramatic debt increases in future years.

Some of Spitzer's plans for boosting the budget would create more than $2.7 billion in risk for New York. Banking on income from taxes on illegal drugs and the conversion of nonprofits to for-profit status is too chancy, according to the report. Spitzer is also counting on $677 million in funding through proposals that had been rejected by legislators in previous years.

“These are proposals ... the executive will make proposals to the Legislature, and if they choose not to accept our proposals then they would have to reduce spending or find additional revenues,” Gordon said. “There are some proposals that were rejected in previous years, but we think they are more likely to be adopted this year because of the fiscal circumstances.”

DiNapoli also said the governor's plan to privatize portions of the lottery was too vague for his office to evaluate until Spitzer reveals the specifics.

On the Net

Find the comptroller's report at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/budget/2008/executivebudget022708 .pdf.