The New York State legislature is gearing up for the governor’s State of the State Monday morning.

Mike Gianaris, the Deputy Majority Leader for the State Senate and New York's 12th District in Queens, told NY1 the pandemic will be prevalent in every aspect of the speech, particularly the financial hole plaguing the city and state.

“The question moving over this entire session will be how do we fill this multi-billion-dollar hole that we’re facing,” said Gianaris.

“Even if we get some needed help from Washington, it’s not going to be enough to deal with the crisis that we’re facing. Ultimately, we’re going to have to raise revenues,” he added.

Gianaris also said the session will aim to pass bills to fix the absentee ballot counting process. He pointed to an unresolved congressional race upstate where ballots are still being counted.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will move to legalize marijuana, which the senator believes could happen.

“Everyone agrees we want to do it, so we should be able to hash out the details before the session is over,” Gianaris said.

He also commented on the governor’s push for widespread sports betting, saying neighboring states already offer this, so New York may as well benefit from the revenue.

He said the goal is to help New Yorkers through programs that provide rental assistance and small business support.