ALBANY—Gone is Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's confidence that his chamber can pass a bill to help the M.T.A. bridge a growing deficit.

He and others had planned to pass a bill this week. Now, after emerging from a closed meeting with David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he said, "We're taking it one day at a time."

"It's not about merits," Smith said. "It's just about what gets us there with the votes that we need to get it passed. Because there are things in this plan that, somebody's not going to like something. At some point, you just have to sort of toughen up a little bit and make the tough decisions."

The M.T.A. board met in Manhattan Monday, and said that even after enacting its "doomsday budget," it will still end the fiscal year with a $621 million deficit.  Fare hikes and service cuts will begin at the end of this week.

I asked Smith whether a provision for a taxi drop-off surcharge, which both Paterson and Silver have said they don't like, was dead. State Senator Martin Malave Dilan said staffers are looking at revising the current M.T.A. bill to eliminate or reduce it. Smith said it remains on the table, and that his chamber's bill is moving through the legislative process. Someone asked Smith if the idea of charging cab riders to pay, partially, for roads and bridges upstate was meritorious.

"I think all the ideas are merited," he said. "They all have merit to them. It's just, do we want to continue to raise taxes on people? No, nobody wants to do that. But we're left with no choice."

After Smith spoke, David Paterson emerged from his second-floor office to say he was "offended" by the current state of affairs.

"The issues of voting seem to be the major issue, and I'm somewhat just offended by that at this point because as professionals we've got to resolve this," he said. "Every day that we don't we're losing money."

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