New Yorkers overwhelmingly support Gov. David Paterson’s message that the state should cut spending instead of raising taxes to get New York’s finances under control, a Siena College poll today says.

Seventy-five percent of voters think the state budget gap of $2 billion for this fiscal year should be closed by cutting spending, while 10 percent support increasing taxes and nine percent favor borrowing money.

Cutting spending as the first option was even stronger in the New York City suburbs and in upstate – 77 percent and 84 percent, respectively.

“Voters are loud and clear about opposing tax increases to close the state budget gap. Read our lips, ‘no new taxes,’ is the message to the governor and Legislature,” said Steven Greenberg, spokesman for the poll.

When given a choice of five areas for the state to cut, 23 percent chose aid to local government, 18 percent transportation, seven percent education and six percent health care.

But 44 percent gave no clear indication, giving the nod instead to “something else.”

When it comes to which tax to raise, nearly two-thirds of voters said raise business taxes; one-quarter said sales tax; and eight percent said raise the income tax.

Voters, though, were skeptical about whether Paterson, who has called for spending cuts rather than raising taxes to fix the state’s fiscal woes, can pull it off.

When asked whether the Democratic governor would be able to hold to his current position of opposing tax increases in the short term, only 19 percent of voters thought he would, compared to 77 percent who believe he will end up supporting a tax increase.

Paterson has called lawmakers back to Albany on Tuesday to cut $2 billion from the current budget, which runs until March 31, to close the current deficit due to a decline of the state’s economy, particularly on Wall Street.

Paterson has called for cuts mainly to health care and education. Yet the proposal, which has been heavily criticized by special-interest groups, doesn’t appear to have affected Paterson’s approval rating: It’s at the highest ever at 64 percent, the poll found.

Voters are divided about the state’s direction, with 39 percent saying the state is headed on the right track and 43 percent saying it is headed in the wrong direction. Fifty-four percent of upstate voters think New York is headed in the wrong direction.

But New Yorkers are apparently more optimistic about the nation’s direction after the election of Democrat Barack Obama. He cruised to victory in New York, which has a heavy Democratic enrollment.

Voters are evenly divided, with 44 percent saying the country is on the right track and 44 percent saying the country is headed in the wrong direction. But three weeks ago, a Siena poll found that voters felt the country was headed in the wrong direction by a margin of 69 percent to 19 percent.

Obama, meanwhile, has the highest favorable rating – 70 percent – that he has ever had in New York. President Bush has his lowest favorable rating, at 22 percent.

In another post-election question, 53 percent of voters believe it’s a good thing that Democrats won control of the state Senate in last week’s election. Democrats are expected to take control in January for the first time since 1965.

The Siena poll was conducted Nov. 10-13 to 626 New York registered voters. It has a margin of error 3.9 percentage points.