This year will be the biggest budget challenge for Gov. Andrew Cuomo since he took office in 2011.



Exploding costs in New York’s popular health-insurance program for the needy is largely fueling the state’s projected $6 billion budget deficit for 2020, and Cuomo is already so worried about getting it under control that he didn’t even wait for his State of the Speech on Wednesday to take action.

He invoked an emergency order last week calling for a 1 percent reduction in payments to hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and pharmacists who participate in the state’s Medicaid program.

The cuts will save $620.4 million through the state’s next fiscal year, or April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, the state Health Department said in the order.

But that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what the state will be in debt for during the same period.

The Medicaid shortfall is projected to be as much as $4 billion, and closing it will be a challenge not only for Cuomo but legislators in the Assembly and Senate — all of whom face reelection in 2020 and are wary of raising taxes or cutting spending before facing the voters.

“Dealing with the budget deficit while preserving and enhancing services promises to be the biggest challenge. That affects education, health care and so much more,” said Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens).

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), said, “A $6 billion hole is nothing to sneeze at.

“We don’t have the money to spend.”

During his first year as governor in 2011, Cuomo and legislators took actions to close a $10 billion hole that included cuts to education and other programs and imposed a spending cap, including on Medicaid. The crisis came as the state was still recovering economically from the recession.

Cuomo was praised by budget watchdogs for controlling spending at the time. But he has come under criticism since then for masking the increased Medicaid costs by delaying payments from one fiscal year to the next, including pushing $1.7 billion in costs from last year’s budget to the current one.

The maneuver “made it appear that the [Medicaid] program was staying on budget when, in fact, it was slipping increasingly out of balance,” said Bill Hammond, who tracks health-care financing for the nonpartisan Empire Center for Public Policy.

Cuomo’s office told The Post that the budget problem is manageable.

“Opinions are relevant when they are based on facts, and we will present actual numbers and options when we do the budget, as otherwise, this is all just speculation,” said Cuomo senior adviser Richard Azzopardi.

The current state budget, including federal funds, is $175.5 billion, with health-care and education costs eating up the largest portions. The governor typically releases the next fiscal year’s budget in the days after his State of the State.

The state Board of Regents has requested a $2 billion increase in funding for public schools, and some lawmakers are calling for even more — not less — state aid, despite Albany’’s budget woes.

“At this point, school districts are owed more money and need more to educate children,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Shelley Mayer (D-Westchester). “I’m going to push for that.”