The budget’s overall price tag is already higher than last year’s approved $229 billion funding plan.

There is $2.4 billion, including $500 million from the state's reserves, to help house tens of thousands of migrants without homes and help them apply for asylum or work.

And $825 million is being added to the overall education budget — which will now top $35 billion.

“The big three are school aid, Medicaid and migrants,” budget director Blake Washington told Spectrum News Monday.

He said spending increases in those three sectors, as well as a drop in federal pandemic aid, have driven up state operating funds by $5.9 billion.

“We've committed $1.9 billion to the migrant crisis and what we're trying to do tonight is just figure out where that number lands in [2025],” Washington said.

Hochul said she will be traveling to Washington Friday to ask the national government for more money to deal with the migrant crisis.

She didn't say if she'd be meeting with President Joe Biden directly. She also urged Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, to “remain at the negotiating table” for an immigration agreement.

Despite the added costs of the migrant crisis, Washington said there are no recommendations calling for increased taxes on corporations or the wealthy. He wants to scale back.

“There's been calls already to increase taxes to cover spending for items that are putting pressure on our budget. But the governor and I certainly believe that we should be living within our means and remain competitive with other states. The governor is concerned about the cost of living in New York state,” Washington said.

The state wants to get control of rising Medicaid costs largely driven by increased overall enrollment and managed long-term care programs.

“We can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow because tomorrow always comes," Hochul said.

In regards to education, Washington said the budget office is proposing a change in school aid funding that seeks to even out aid disbursement between wealthy and poorer districts — an idea in the past that has been opposed by wealthier districts in the suburbs.

“We have a proposal to modify that and to step down from a state support for the districts that are overfunded relative to their foundation aid level and to try to right size and drive the resources to the districts that are growing and high poverty,” Washington said.

This change is a potential poison pill for officials seeking reelection.

“We want to ensure that we're not impacting education because there is a dynamic change. There is a demographic change in the suburbs. Everyone assumes the suburbs are homogenous. They're actually diverse,” said Long Island Democratic Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages.

In higher education, Hochul is proposing $207 million to go to operations at the State University of New York and City University of New York, as well as $1.2 billion for capital projects at higher education institutions.

The governor also said Tuesday she wants to grant Mayor Eric Adams another four years of full command of the city’s school system — known as mayoral control — but like all the proposals, she will need approval from the state legislature.

In regards to public safety, Hochul is also proposing investments of $40 million to combat retail theft, $40 million to combat domestic violence and $35 million to combat hate crimes.

Hochul argues that all this spending is necessary.

“We also know that companies won’t do business in New York if there are thousands of people sleeping on the streets or the quality of life is dramatically impacted if the city is forced to cut essential services,” Hochul said.

But legislators, like Queens Democrat Jessica Ramos, argue it’s all talk, citing past actions driving the affordability crisis, like Metropolitan Transportation Authority fare hikes or SUNY tuition hikes.

“When many of my family members end up having to buy a house in New Jersey because they can't afford to do so in Queens where a house doesn't go less than a million dollars, perhaps the notion is that we shouldn’t find creative ways to tax middle-class New Yorkers to drive them away. We should be taxing the rich so that we can provide every single child in New York state with sound education,” Ramos said at a press conference Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Adams released his $109.4 billion preliminary budget for the 2025 fiscal year Tuesday, focusing on tackling the ongoing influx of migrants.

He said last week that he shaved off 20% of the city’s current migrant-related expenditures.

But the state is already on track to spend around $2 billion on housing, legal services and National Guard personnel, mainly concentrated on efforts within the five boroughs.

Biden’s administration has awarded less than $200 million to help with costs, drawing constant criticism from Adams as more than 100,000 migrants have arrived in the city since spring 2022.

Washington said the state would also love to slim down expenses and is eager to revise projections in coming years.

“Buses are still arriving and still a big headache,” he said.

The state is also paying for leases for emergency migrant shelters at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Floyd Bennett Field and the Lincoln Correctional Facility.