CAPITOL — The three top state leaders were lavish in their praise of the state university system Tuesday, promising major improvements through long-term boosts in funding.

In this year’s budget process, though, the State University of New York is seeking $127.3 million in funding that Gov. Eliot Spitzer is not proposing to provide.

That includes a $34.2 million reduction in projected operating funds, and a $6.2 million cut to community college base aid.

On the other hand, Spitzer is not including a 5 percent tuition increase for four-year colleges that SUNY leaders had proposed.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said at a SUNY Day event in the lobby of The Egg theater that he supports restoring the funding that Spitzer has cut. Asked about a tuition increase, he said: “We’re presently opposed to that.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, was noncommittal when asked whether he supports restoring funding for Spitzer’s cuts.

Matt Anderson, a spokesman for Spitzer’s Budget Division, said only $48.8 million of the items listed under “Restore” in a SUNY budget document can properly be regarded as cuts. The other $78.5 million, he said, represent SUNY requests that Spitzer did not endorse in his budget proposal. Those requests include a $32.1 million subsidy for the three university hospitals to cover salary and benefit increases, and $29 million to hire more full-time faculty and support enrollment growth.

Anderson said the reduction in projected operating aid represents the governor’s 2.5 percent across-the-board effort to seek efficiencies in state government, and is preferable to a tuition increase.

Spitzer himself said his long-term plans to greatly increase aid, in part by creating a $4 billion endowment by partially privatizing the state Lottery, were much more important than “the vagaries” of this year’s budget.

Under Spitzer’s proposal, most of the endowment would be for the benefit of the state and New York City public university systems, helping SUNY hire 2,000 more full-time faculty — but private institutions also could benefit.

Silver said of the potential private aid: “I’m not sure that’s an appropriate use of public money.” He also expressed continued reservations about the Lottery privatization, but supported creation of a SUNY endowment.

Ed Baker, dean of continuing education at Schenectady County Community College, said the proposed cut in aid to community colleges could result in a tuition increase of up to $200 per year. Community colleges, unlike the four-year SUNY schools, can set their own tuition rates.

Ralf Schauer, an SCCC professor and president of the faculty union, said his key issue is the SUNY request, which Spitzer’s budget did not endorse, for $5.4 million to relieve employees of the cost of contributing to a retirement program. Employees at four-year colleges have that cost covered in the governor’s budget proposal, he said, and the lack of such a provision for community college employees amounts to placing an unfunded mandate on the two-year schools.

SUNY’s legislative agenda includes support for the endowment and a separate $4.4 billion multiyear capital plan. SUNY also is supporting Spitzer budget language “for procurement, construction, and administrative flexibility which provides the University with greater operating autonomy without cost to the state.”