ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson took one more chance this week to distance himself from the strategy of his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, the man he ran alongside nearly two years ago.

“Trying to embarrass people, trying to intimidate people, trying to expose people in the newspapers, this has been tried before, and I think you know what the results of that are,” he said at a news conference on Monday.

But when one of the most unusual legislative sessions in state history came to a close in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, it was not clear that the accommodating strategy of Mr. Paterson was any more effective than the slashing style of Mr. Spitzer.

The fundamental financial problems that beset New York remain in place. The state and local tax burdens are among the highest in the nation, much of upstate New York is economically depressed and the eroding returns on Wall Street, the state’s main economic engine, portend a financial crisis in years to come, with the state facing a cumulative deficit of $21.5 billion over the next three years.

A little more than three months into his new job, Mr. Paterson is probably best known for admitting to several extramarital affairs and for ordering state agencies to recognize gay marriages performed in other states. In the capital, he struck a truce with Senate Republicans, volunteering not to campaign for Democrats against Republican incumbents this fall, though the resignation this week of the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, could shift that dynamic.

Clearly, the governor and the Legislature are getting along far better than they did under Mr. Spitzer, and reached agreements on a range of issues in recent days. The governor, in an interview on Monday, said he was most relieved about the overhaul of a state program to clean up toxic sites known as brownfields. He said the program had evolved into a billion-dollar boondoggle for real estate developers.

“I do not know a way to cut into future budgets as much as what we did today,” he said, adding that the program was growing “like a runaway train.”

Other agreements included legislation to avert foreclosures, establish a waste-transfer station on Gansevoort Street on the West Side of Manhattan, bolster background checks for buyers of firearms, tighten disciplinary action against doctors who make mistakes and increase the supervision of violent felons released from state custody.

“Usually, the last day of session, the leaders are able to announce about five or six agreements on issues that have been floating around,” the governor said. “We’ve surpassed that threefold, so we’re very happy about that.”

But some of the weightiest issues remain unresolved.

Two months ago, the governor said he would push to reopen the budget by the end of the legislative session and start attacking next year’s $5 billion deficit early. Such talks were never seriously initiated. He also proposed to cap property taxes, but made limited headway in the Legislature. And he has been hammered by good-government groups for abandoning measures that would overhaul the state’s campaign finance laws.

“After a uniquely chaotic session, this has been Albany at its most typical,” said Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

“Lots of bills have passed, big-ticket items like property taxes and energy costs are ignored, and they kicked the can on the state’s fiscal crisis,” he added.

Among those striking a skeptical note on Wednesday was the new Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, who said, “It would be easy to declare this session a success, but I will stop short of doing that because our unfinished business includes the most important issue facing New Yorkers: skyrocketing property taxes.”

Edmund J. McMahon, the director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative research group, said the governor should be given time.

“His success so far has been in framing the issues,” said Mr. McMahon, a former adviser to Gov. George E. Pataki. “You have to start by framing these issues on your terms, and he’s done that.”

Complicating matters is the enormous clout of labor unions; Mr. Paterson said he was particularly disturbed that they pronounced his proposal to impose a property tax ceiling dead on arrival earlier this year.

“I would even have been upset if Shelly Silver or Joe Bruno said that,” he said, “but for advocates to be announcing that they have the kind of power that they can just shut down bills makes Albany dysfunctional.”

The governor said elected officials had to reassert their authority over the political process, adding, “That’s the real reform we have to make in Albany.”

Reflecting labor’s clout, a union-backed bill that recently passed would impose a one-year moratorium on municipalities that would bar them from cutting spending on retirees’ medical benefits, even if they find a better deal for delivering the same care or prescription drugs. The legislation would also create a 12-person state task force on retirees’ health care that would include three people from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. but no representatives from local governments.

Stephen J. Acquario, the executive director of the New York State Association of Counties, said the bill was aimed at solving a problem that did not exist.

“We are not aware of any widespread action by counties to substantially reduce retiree health insurance,” he said.

Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate Jr., a Brooklyn Democrat and one of labor’s allies, sponsored the legislation. He agreed that there were no signs that counties were moving to cut retirees’ health benefits, but said he was worried that they might do so in the future.

“You’re afraid they might go off and do something without thinking,” he said.

Mr. Paterson’s office said the governor had not decided whether to sign the bill.

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