ALBANY - Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders continued to negotiate behind closed doors Sunday on a range of issues they're aiming to settle before the Legislature adjourns its session.

By Sunday evening they had agreed on some items, including a program aimed at encouraging energy-efficient homes, changes in state procurement practices.

But they were still discussing some of the weightier issues such as a property-tax cap and toughening the penalties for school employees who have sex with students.

Although Monday is the scheduled end of the session, it appears as if lawmakers will continue to work later into the week.

Among the items Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver agreed on over the weekend is a new state program aimed at spurring energy-efficient homes.

The program will provide grants to homeowners and builders who adhere to “green building” standards like those established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Grants will be capped at $7,500 for single and two-family houses, $11,250 for buildings with three-to-six units and $15,000 for buildings with more than six units, said Morgan Hook, a Paterson spokesman.

They also agreed on a series of changes in state procurement rules established in 1995. They include:

• Requiring state agencies, when they choose to deal directly with a specific business instead of using a competitive bidding process, to justify and explain on their Web sites why they did so.

• Clarifying that procurements can be done electronically and publishing a daily electronic newsletter advertising state contracts.

• Giving municipalities the right to buy surplus state property before it is put up for public sale on eBay.

Changes in New York's identity-theft laws also made it off the bargaining table over the weekend.

They include stricter rules for employers to safeguard employees' personal information, including Social Security numbers, and allowing victims to sue for restitution equal to the value of the time they spend undoing the damage done by identity theft.

Still unresolved is the issue of capping increases in property taxes. Paterson's proposal to cap property tax increases at 4 percent year had met stiff resistance in both the Republican-led Senate and the Assembly, where Democrats hold the majority.

Bruno appeared to be warming to the idea late last week while the Assembly's view appeared to be unchanged.

Also on the table is a bill that would make sex involving a school employee and a student of any age illegal, which sponsors hope will end a practice by predators of “grooming” students until they reach the age of consent for sex.

The idea is to avoid a loophole that has enabled some sexual predators to lure students into their confidence then have sex with them shortly after they reach 17 or 18 years old, when child sex crimes can be harder to prosecute.