ALBANY – Something’s not adding up!

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s state budget plan is almost $9 billion larger than her office initially claimed, largely because of an insurance program for low-income residents including illegal immigrants.

The surprise squeeze on state taxpayers brings the already record-high and months-late state budget to an eye-watering total of $277 billion, according to a financial plan released by Hochul’s budget office on Wednesday.

“Apparently, Democrats had to pass the State Budget so they could find out what was in it,” Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra (R-Nassau) wrote in a blistering statement responding to the news.

“Albany Democrats demanded a blank check from New York taxpayers and signed it in the dark,” he added. “Backwards budgeting might be the Democratic way, but it doesn’t work for the families who are forced to pick up the tab.”

About $7 billion of the $8.5 billion increase comes from the state tapping into a $10 billion pot of federal cash that has been locked in a state fund for a decade and couldn’t be accessed without authority from the US government. 

The money will be used to fund health insurance benefits for roughly 1.4 million people previously covered under the state’s “Essential Plan,” including the so-called “Aliessa population,” non-US citizens including green card holders and immilegal immigrants.

A recent court ruling determined the state has to provide a health coverage option to the population, despite the Trump administration restricting the use of Medicaid dollars for the program.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services signed off on most of New York’s request to tap into the fund, despite the Trump administration explicitly blocking states like New York from using the federal dollars to support health benefits for non-citizens under the One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year.

CMS giving New York permission access the funds bailed state Democrats from a tough decision that would’ve forced them to kick even more people off their coverage or ramp up state-only Medicaid costs by upwards of $3 billion, in a pivotal election year with Hochul on the ballot.

That was despite persistent blame by Hochul and other Democrats for passing the federal bill.

“Everything we do is fiscally responsible,” Hochul reassured reporters early last month when she said she’d struck a deal on a $268 billion state budget.

But how the state will fund those benefits after the $10 billion fund dries up in December 2028 is “TBD,: the “plan” reads, creating a massive fiscal cliff for the state to address in the 2028-202 budget.

“What’s crystal clear is that despite very strong revenues, the State squandered the opportunity to stabilize its fiscal future. It kept its rainy day reserves virtually flat, even amid mixed economic currents. It layered billions of dollars of spending on top of a base it already could not sustain,” Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein wrote in a statement Thursday.

He took particular issue with additional recurring spending adding up to what the CBC considers a $18 billion structural outyear deficit.

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“That’s a real fiscal risk to the State—and vulnerable New Yorkers who rely on its services—because it could drive serious service cuts in the future even without a recession,” Rein said.

Hochul’s office refused to address why it previously misrepresented the overall size of the budget – the most expensive in state history..

“The updated All Funds number is a more accurate reflection that includes additional federal funding, a majority of which recently became eligible to spend,” Hochul spokesperson Tim Ruffinen wrote to The Post in a statement.