Rochester-area billionaire Tom Golisano was in the Capitol this morning to promote his Responsible New York reform group, saying he was not deterred by the group’s Election Day losses.

In fact, Golisano said he may put more money into the group to fight special-interest groups who are trying to thwart Gov. David Paterson’s plan to cut state spending.

He said there needs to be a voice out there countering claims that cuts would be bad for New York. He didn’t say how much money he would invest, but suggested the group may run a statewide ad campaign to back Paterson’s efforts.

“Just because this union or that union, or that association or that business group doesn’t like it, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it,” he said of spending cuts after appearing on Fred Dicker’s Albany radio show this morning.

“We have to do it.”

Golisano put $5 million into Responsible New York, but the group had limited success, and only won two of the six races that it pumped big money into. And it’s questionable how much influence Golisano had on any of the races.

But he said the effort was successful and helped narrow the gap in some races, such as backing Democrat Rick Dollinger’s bid against Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, Monroe County. He said Dollinger lost by 4 percentage points, even though earlier polls showed him losing by double digits.

Golisano, founder of Paychex Inc. who ran for governor three times on the Independence Party line he helped establish, and Responsible New York co-chairs Laureen Oliver and Steve Pigeon were expected to meet with lawmakers over the next two days in New York City and Albany as the group plans to open a full-time office in Albany in the coming weeks.

“What Responsible New York is all about is trying to influence legislators and legislation to get us back on a more balanced beam,” Golisano said on Dicker’s show on Talk 1300-AM.

“Right now we’re the highest-taxed population in the (country) and you have the least amount of growth. Don’t you think there is a correlation between the two?”

He added, “If you keep funding your operating budgets with debt and with overspending, sooner or later it catches up to you. I think it caught up to us on the federal level and it’s certainly caught up to us on the state level.”