The following is  NY Post exclusive:

Gov. Cuomo is threatening to shut down state government in early April if the Legislature refuses to pass a new budget that slashes spending by an unprecedented $10 billion, The Post has learned.

Insiders said Cuomo is determined to avoid the long budget delays that have plagued and crippled the state for nearly three decades as budget fights between governors and the Legislature went as late as mid-August.

The first-ever shutdown would bring nearly all services except prisons, health-care institutions and the State Police to a grinding halt and leave more than 100,000 state workers idle and without paychecks, insiders said.

Cuomo relayed his readiness for such a high-stakes confrontation in conversations with key aides and state lawmakers during the past two weeks as he outlined general plans to cut the state payroll and impose billions of dollars in reductions on school districts and the Medicaid program in the fiscal year beginning April 1.

“The choice this time for lawmakers is going to be Cuomo’s horrible budget or an even more horrible situation: an entire state shutdown,” said a source close to the situation.

The new governor, who has rejected the state’s traditional reliance on higher taxes and borrowing to close budget gaps, will outline specifics of his tough spending plan on Feb. 1, setting the stage for what one legislative aide called “a budget Armageddon” with the Legislature.

A shutdown would bring enormous political pressure on the Legislature, which, because it gets most of its political contributions from special interests that rely on state spending, has traditionally refused to accept massive budget cuts.

Cuomo would keep the onus of shutting government down on the Legislature through the use of a “continuing resolution” that would keep the state functioning, but at a drastically reduced level.

Greatly strengthening his stance is the fact that lawmakers face re-election next year, while the governor doesn’t have to face the voters again until 2014.

Meanwhile, some legislators are being described as in shock over what they’ve been told will be in Cuomo’s budget—and their leaders have yet to come up with alternatives to deal with it.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), whose liberal, tax-and-spend-friendly conference is expected to be Cuomo’s biggest budget opponent, has indicated he wants to continue a soon-to-expire “millionaire’s tax” that actually hits single wage earners making $200,000 and up.

But that tax will produce only $1 billion in revenue in the next fiscal year—leaving a $9 billion gap.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) has ruled out any tax increases, including renewal of the millionaire’s tax, but he’s offered no alternative to Cuomo’s budget-cutting plans.

“The key question is whether Skelos and the GOP will act like Republicans are supposed to act and stand by Cuomo and his budget cuts,” said a Cuomo administration source.

“Let’s see where they stand when the governor says he’s cutting the work force, closing state facilities and cutting school aid to some of their favorites districts, like on Long Island,” the source continued.

Meanwhile, legislative insiders said Silver and his aides were quietly sounding out Senate Democrats in an early effort to build an alliance against Cuomo’s looming budget cuts.

However, a spokesman for Silver insisted that claim was “totally untrue.”

While Senate Minority Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) has publicly insisted he’ll back Cuomo’s budget plans, his overwhelmingly liberal and New York City-oriented conference will likely share the Assembly Democrats’ unhappiness and may be ready to buck the governor.

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(Source: NY Post)