As New York legislators and the governor move past the Gov. Eliot Spitzer sex scandal, they appear to be heading down a familiar path - a late state budget.

Regrettably, little or no progress was made in Albany last week in the effort to come to an agreement on the state's spending plan by the April 1 deadline.

Late state budgets do have an impact, because spending in Albany trickles down to the local level. School districts, municipalities and even nonprofit organizations that get state dollars struggle to plan ahead when they don't know what to expect from the state budget.

School districts are particularly shortchanged by late budgets because they have no choice but to put their own spending plans in front of voters by mid-May. And those school budgets rely heavily on state aid.

As this week unfolds, some in Albany are floating the idea of passing a partial budget and working on the complete document in the coming months. That approach would allow lawmakers to say they beat the deadline, and more importantly to them, allow them to continue collecting their state paychecks.

We hope enough lawmakers, perhaps motivated by the way it would look to voters in the fall, reject such a tactic. The top priority for legislators and the governor every year should be getting an on-time budget established, and they should be working on achieving that goal from the day in early January when they report to Albany.

There's a reason lawmakers' pay is tied to meeting the state budget deadline. It's supposed to motivate them to do their job. But that job is not to find loopholes that allow them to avoid their responsibility.

A partial budget would benefit one small group of New York residents - the incumbent legislators. Let's hope they have the integrity to reject that idea and finish their work.