The money is the result of years of aggressive lobbying by private colleges, as well as shrewd tactics by their lead strategist, Abraham M. Lackman, an influential Albany figure who has personally donated more than $40,000 to legislators since starting work for the colleges.

In explaining the appropriation, several lawmakers say they were stunned to learn that 16 percent of New York students at private colleges came from families that earned $20,000 or less in 2002, compared with 13 percent at the four-year colleges of the State University of New York. On the upper end of the income scale, 46 percent of those attending private colleges came from homes that earned $80,000 or more, while the rate at SUNY was higher, at 52 percent. These statistics are based on state data analyzed by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, a trade and lobbying group for private colleges.

Even so, David Henahan, a spokesman for SUNY, disputed the private colleges' statistics showing that greater numbers of low-income students enroll at private schools. He noted that the data did not include more than 204,000 students enrolled at SUNY community colleges.

Tucked into the 2005 state budget is an unusual new program that seems especially out of place in a year when public schools are wailing for more money: $150 million for private colleges to aid fund-raising and construction.

The money is the result of years of aggressive lobbying by private colleges, as well as shrewd tactics by their lead strategist, Abraham M. Lackman, an influential Albany figure who has personally donated more than $40,000 to legislators since starting work for the colleges.

Even liberal Democrats in Albany have enthusiastically endorsed the new program for private colleges, upending their own conventional wisdom that they would never steer funds to campuses that have endowments valued above $1 billion, including Columbia, New York University and the University of Rochester.

One reason for their support stems from a little-understood fact about the state's 148 private colleges: Despite having tuitions of $20,000 and up, these schools are chosen by many needy New Yorkers over the state and city university systems, which charge less than $5,000 annually.

In explaining the appropriation, several lawmakers say they were stunned to learn that 16 percent of New York students at private colleges came from families that earned $20,000 or less in 2002, compared with 13 percent at the four-year colleges of the State University of New York. On the upper end of the income scale, 46 percent of those attending private colleges came from homes that earned $80,000 or more, while the rate at SUNY was higher, at 52 percent. These statistics are based on state data analyzed by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, a trade and lobbying group for private colleges.

Yet another factor behind the program was the lobbying by Mr. Lackman, whose track record illustrates the benefits of hiring a former political operative to push a cause.

Mr. Lackman, who is president of the commission of private colleges, previously led the State Senate's finance staff and served as a budget director for Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. He is a familiar face in the Capitol and is respected on both sides of the aisle. He is also seen as a crafty strategist, as exemplified by his counterintuitive arguments that expensive private colleges enroll so many low-income students.

Mr. Lackman is also a generous patron of Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Since assuming his duties in 2002, he has personally donated $15,700 to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee; $8,000 to a similar fund for Assembly Democrats; $4,850 to Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, the Republican chairman of his chamber's Higher Education Committee; $2,500 each to Gov. George E. Pataki and the Senate Republican majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno; and thousands more to individual legislators.

Commission members first raised the idea of the program among themselves in 1999, and nearly won passage in 2004, but the governor vetoed it. But Mr. Lackman kept making the case, and was seen at the Capitol late into the night this spring as the final budget neared passage.

''Many of us were very surprised that they were doing a better job of reaching needy, low-income students than SUNY,'' Assemblyman Ron Canestrari said of the private colleges. Mr. Canestrari, a Democrat from Albany County, is chairman of his chamber's Higher Education Committee. (He received $500 from Mr. Lackman.)

Even if $150 million is a sliver compared to the $106 billion state budget, the implications of the new program for education policy are provocative: In years ahead, the private colleges hope to win even more taxpayer money by showcasing themselves as sharing the same public mission as SUNY and the City University of New York.

''The most eye-opening moment came the first time I ever met Senator Clinton and showed her the data, and she replied, 'I don't believe this,''' Mr. Lackman said, referring to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the junior United States senator from New York. ''There's this concept of private colleges being for the upper class,'' he said. ''But Senator Clinton called back two weeks later and said her staff had researched it and the data were right.''

For now, the public universities have adopted a wary posture toward appropriations for the private colleges, in part because of their own success obtaining state construction aid, like the $6.3 billion SUNY has received since 1998.

Even so, David Henahan, a spokesman for SUNY, disputed the private colleges' statistics showing that greater numbers of low-income students enroll at private schools. He noted that the data did not include more than 204,000 students enrolled at SUNY community colleges.

''This is a manufactured statistic,'' Mr. Henahan said.

Because the money comes from state bonds, the private colleges are not chipping into general fund dollars that are precious to SUNY and CUNY.

At least not yet, Mr. Lackman said.

''I would love to see all of higher education funding based on the need of the student,'' he said. Most state dollars now go to SUNY and CUNY based on enrollment and other factors.

The capital aid is the first that New York has provided for all eligible private colleges in a systematic way, beyond the discretionary dollars doled out here and there by individual legislators. Maryland and New Jersey have similar programs.

The program also reflects Mr. Pataki's approach of making the state into a leveraging partner for colleges. The new money will come in the form of matching grants, with schools required to raise $3 for every dollar they receive from the fund.