BOSTON--The Legislature's top Democratic budget writers say social activists' efforts to increase state spending will fail, even though tax collections are a bit better than expected.

"The example I'd use for [fiscal year 1992] is we didn't fall over the edge of the cliff, but we're on the edge of the cliff. We are balanced, but it is a very tentative balance," House Ways and Means Committee Chair Thomas Finneran (D-Boston) said in an interview.

His Senate counterpart, Democrat Patricia McGovern of Lawrence, also said that the economy and the state's revenue picture aren't good enough to allow higher spending.

The $13 billion budget for fiscal 1992, which began last July 1, trimmed spending more than $600 million below the previous year. It also included significant cuts in many social service programs, as well as in aid to cities and towns.

"It's hard to hold the line. There are so many people in need, so many cities and towns in need," McGovern said. "On the other hand, if you don't hold the line, you cause those people more pain in the future.

"You take the medicine, you cure the patient. If you don't take the medicine, you feel better at the time, but then you get sicker," she said.

Finneran said higher taxes still are not an option for the Legislature, and not just because of Republican Gov. William F. Weld's opposition to them.

"It's something that most economists would agree. You don't enact significant taxes in the midst of a recession, particularly when there is no horizon on the recession," Finneran said in an interview.

McGovern also agreed the votes just aren't there in the Legislature for a tax increase.

Finneran raised the warnings last week during debate on overriding some of Weld's vetoes in the 1992 fiscal year budget passed June 30.

While supporting the veto overrides, Finneran warned spending advocates that the veto votes weren't a signal the Legislature would return to the tax-and-spend practices of the past.

Finneran said the 1992 budget was balanced in part with one-time revenues, such as the sale of state assets worth $230 million.

Even if that money comes in, and some of it is questionable, it won't be available for next year's budget.

Finneran said he anticipates that tax collections for the bookkeeping year that starts July 1, 1992, will be at essentially the same level as this year.

Weld and Democratic legislative leaders estimated that this year's tax collections would total $8.3 billion.