Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would explore changes to new laws limiting the use of cash bail and promised a renewed effort to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use as a part of his annual budget address Tuesday.

The remarks came as Cuomo, a Democrat who is serving his third term in office, unveiled an ambitious new plan to close the state's $6.1 billion budget gap through increased tax receipts, a restructuring of Medicaid and cuts to local governments.

While the budget message chiefly outlines the governor's fiscal priorities for the upcoming year, it often includes other policy matters that he plans to pursue as lawmakers look to finalize a spending plan by the end of March.

Cuomo said Tuesday that he would pursue marijuana legalization through the 2021 budget process, after a similar push last year failed due, in part, to disagreements within the Democratic-controlled state Legislature over how to distribute an estimated $300 million in revenue from cannabis sales.

In his State of the State address Jan. 8, Cuomo declined to detail exactly where revenue sales would go, but did say that revenues from sales should go to research and resources for harm reduction, treatment and prevention providers.

New York, he said, was working with neighbor states to coordinate a comprehensive system for legalizing marijuana and would work to create a statewide education campaign to communicate the potential health risks of using marijuana that exist for vulnerable populations.

On Tuesday, the governor said his proposal on cannabis was best addressed as a part of the budget, which could speed up action and force lawmakers to work out their differences.

"I believe the budget is the opportunity, frankly, to make some tough decisions and work through tough issues," he said during his hour-long remarks in Albany. "Without the budget, it can often languish, and I suggest that we get in done in the budget."

Cuomo also signaled support earlier this month for Chief Judge Janet DiFiore's court consolidation plan, which would move the state's current 11 different trial courts into just three venues. Budget briefing materials on Tuesday mentioned the chief judge's court restructuring plan, but did not provide specifics.

Cuomo said Tuesday that he was open to pursuing changes to New York's new bail-reform laws, which largely eliminated cash bail for low-level, nonviolent offenses. Republicans, however, have seized on opposition from some law enforcement groups, which have criticized the measures for excluding hate crimes and other charges from the list of bail-eligible offenses and claimed that the reforms could jeopardize public safety.

Acknowledging that pushback, Cuomo described bail reform as an "ongoing process" that would require renewed engagement in the coming weeks.

"It's not that you reform a system once and then you walk away. You make a change in the system, it has consequences, and you have to understand those consequences," he said. "We need to respond to the facts, but not the politics, and we need to act on information and not hyperbole."

Among the other policies proposals outlined in his speech, Cuomo said he would advance legislation that would allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to ban repeat and high-risk sexual offenders from using MTA services for a period of three years. The proposal, his office said, would also include a new law that would authorize judges to issue a prohibition order against anyone convicted of "transit-related" sex crimes.

Cuomo also said he planned to close New York's "rape intoxication loophole" through legislation clarifying that the state's existing rape statutes apply to cases where a woman had voluntarily consumed enough alcohol to be incapacitated. And he called on lawmakers to pass a "first-in-the-nation" Equal Rights Amendment to include sex and other categories such as ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity as protected classes under the New York Constitution.

The governor's $178 billion budget proposal emphasized spending on low income schools and health care, and it included plans to create a Medicaid Redesign Team, which will be tasked with finding ways to trim $2.5 billion in spending on the program.

Any savings, Cuomo said, must have "zero impact" on low-income beneficiaries, and he promised not to strap local governments with a higher share of Medicaid costs, as long as they keep cost increases to 3% or less per year.

The spending plan also included a $33 billion five-year plan to fight climate change and $2.9 billion in added spending to combat childhood poverty.

Overall, Cuomo's plan would increase state spending by 1.9%, without imposing any new revenues. The administration, he said, would instead try to close the budget gap through a combination of Medicaid savings, tax receipt revisions and $1.8 million in local assistance savings.

"This is not the time to come up with creative, although irresponsible revenue sources to solve a problem, which doesn't really exist," Cuomo said.

Read More: