Gov. Cuomo genuflected deeply in the direction of a balanced state budget yesterday, making it known that he’ll be proposing a pay freeze for all state employees in tomorrow’s message to the Legislature.

That would be a promising first step — but only a first step.

Cuomo will have to go further — a lot further — if he hopes to fill the $10 billion hole in next year’s state budget.

Obviously, nothing short of a complete overhaul of the way New York conducts business will suffice to set the state’s finances right.

And Cuomo’s proposed wage freeze — while dramatic — doesn’t carry much budget-balancing wallop. The state’s cur rent fiscal plan doesn’t include raises — thus, a freeze won’t count for much against New York’s projected deficit.

So while it’s a necessary prerequisite, it has to be a total freeze in place: no merit increases, no longevity hikes, no nothing.

And it needs to be extended beyond Albany to all governmental subdivisions in the state: cities, counties, towns, school districts — everything.

As much as $2 billion could be saved statewide over the next two years. That’s not a panacea, but it’s probably enough to make Cuomo’s promised property-tax cap a palatable proposition to local governments and school districts.

This would require legislation and would enrage the Legislature’s true masters — the teachers and other public-sector unions.

Then again, they are perpetually enraged — so the new governor might just as well get the inevitable over with.

Former Port Authority Executive Director George Marlin put it this way: Cuomo “is going to have to do a lot more than freeze state salaries . . . he’s going to need cuts, cutting to the bone in a way that hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.”

It’s a tall order.

Time to get to work.