ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul better bring a fighting spirit against fellow Albany Democrats in budget talks – or else progressives are going to beat back her efforts to overhaul bail reform, Republican legislative leaders warned Wednesday.

“She certainly could do it – but it would be bloody,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Fulton) told The Post.

“It’s a reasonable assumption that the Legislature’s so dug in that they’re not going to do any type of criminal justice reforms or changes to the bill. I’m not so sure that is the case.”

The Democratic supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly rejected her proposal to loosen bail laws to make it easier for judges to impose cash bail on criminal defendants accused of serious offenses.

“She knew this would be a bloody point in negotiations,” state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Lockport) told reporters Wednesday following a recent meeting with Hochul.

“I’m gonna hold her to her word at this point that she needs to lean in. If she doesn’t – no one else is fighting for victims out there.”

Controversial reforms passed in 2019 require judges to give defendants the “least restrictive conditions” ahead of their trials even when the offense would otherwise allow cash bail – an ambiguity that Hochul says must be resolved this year amid rising crime.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) have pushed back at efforts to overhaul progressive reforms by noting that crime has increased nationally, including in states with relatively lax bail laws.

“We are as interested as everyone in combating crimes, stopping violent crimes,” Stewart-Cousins told reporters at the Capitol Wednesday.

“We have always looked at data. We always want to look at data and I really want to be able to match whatever we are doing to a data point that actually suggests that it would improve the circumstances.”

Some data suggest, however, at least a strong correlation between limiting cash bail and the rates some people reoffend.

Recidivism has increased among violent offenders in recent years, according to a report released Wednesday by John Jay College’s Data Collaborative for Justice, which also found that people charged with lesser offenses generally reoffended less.

However, the report shows that recidivism has increased for repeat offenders accused of some crimes like burglary and shoplifting.

“There was a pandemic. We’re still living through ramifications of that. And I still think that’s something that is that has really been lost,” Heastie said while noting the trial system got clogged by COVID-19 shutdowns.

But Republicans have pointed to a series of retail thefts and other crimes tied to repeat offenders while arguing that bail reform must get rolled back despite the resistance of Democratic lawmakers — as long as Hochul fights for her budget proposal.

“New Yorkers, people who are scared to take the subway, people who are scared to go to the bodega, people who are scared to walk their kid to school – certainly in New York City in Rochester, across the state – they’re counting on her to be strong enough to protect them,” Ortt said Wednesday. “So I hope she is.”

Both GOP legislative leaders are urging Hochul to leverage her executive budgetary powers to beat her fellow Democrats on bail by refusing to approve a budget until they give in.

Hochul said earlier this week that she was willing to blow by the April 1 deadline while noting that she did that last year to expand the number of situations where bail can be imposed by judges.

While Democratic legislators have mostly avoided public displays of support – including state Sen. Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) who flip-flopped on her bail proposal last week – Hochul expressed optimism Wednesday that Democratic legislators will eventually back down on opposing her on issues like bail.

“I’m listening to the voices of New Yorkers … They support our bail plan,” she told reporters. “But I feel very comfortable with where we are at this time.”

Yet, with budget talks getting serious in the two weeks remaining before the deadline, Ortt said there remains a huge risk that Hochul could abandon her bail push while seeking wins on other proposals like promoting housing construction or expanding charter schools in New York City.

Hochul is facing stiff resistance from legislators opposed to expanding charter schools in New York City and her much-touted housing plan, which suburbanites warn would undermine local zoning rules.

“We all know there’s horse trading. Does it get traded away?” Ortt said about bail. “I don’t know.”