ALBANY – When Mayor Bloomberg arrives, hat in hand, at the state Capitol today, lawmakers will take careful note not only of what he says, but also of how he says it.

New York City mayors have used the annual trip to Albany on the Monday following the governor’s budget proposal as an opportunity to project a lasting image of their tenure. Up to now, Mr. Bloomberg has favored the look of quiet insistence.

Facing a tough re-election campaign, a projected $3 billion budget deficit, and a spending plan from Albany that some downstate critics are calling an insult to the needs of New Yorkers, however, Mr. Bloomberg may feel the need to make this appearance his bang-on-the-lectern Khrushchev moment, some legislators here say.

“The mayor’s argument every year has been that there’s no point in appearing aggravated with the governor because they need to continue to work together,” Senator Liz Krueger, Democrat of Manhattan, said. “My concern about that strategy is that if you let the governor get away with shortchanging New York City, then you’re going to get shortchanged.”

Governor Pataki’s $105 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins April 1 has been widely viewed as a nod to upstate property owners and an unblinking effort at Medicaid reform. The plan would cap local contributions to the health-care program at 2007 levels and provide financial incentives for “distressed” cities upstate to cut costs.

It also calls for more state troopers, higher fees for motor vehicle registration, and a tax on hospital revenue.

Looking south, the plan would provide $926 million to New York City in new state aid and “economic relief.” It includes $400 million in Medicaid savings for the city; $280 million in increased aid to public schools, and $280 million through raising the ceiling for sales-tax holiday purchase exemptions to $250 from $110. It would provide $19 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. All of that is in sharp contrast with Mr. Bloomberg’s stated needs. The mayor had hoped for an additional $1 billion for public schools. He said he wanted $27 billion in public transportation funds over the next few years to be used on a long-awaited line between Grand Central Terminal and the Long Island Railroad, among other projects. The Second Avenue subway line appears permanently on hold.

Mr. Bloomberg angered some lawmakers by reacting philosophically to a similar budget proposal last year. Careful not to attack the governor personally, the mayor called Mr. Pataki’s plan for the city “well-meaning,” even as he criticized some of its details.

“The governor certainly showed in his budget that he cares about New York City and understands our needs,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the time.

Disputes between the offices are seldom so genteel. In the early 1930s, Governor Lehman called Mayor La Guardia “dictatorial” for requesting increased financial freedom and charged the new mayor with exaggerating the city’s financial troubles. Still, observers say Mr. Bloomberg would gain little by changing his tactics now.

“I think confronting the governor and making a major issue out of every spending cut certainly has never worked in the past,” Steve Cohen, an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, said. “You can count on Shelly Silver and the Assembly to make all the noise for the city.” Mr. Silver is speaker of the Democrat-dominated Assembly.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Silver, Eileen Larrabee, said the Lower Manhattan assemblyman has said in the past that he would have liked for Mr. Bloomberg to be “more vocal” about the needs of New York City. But Mr. Silver would not say what issues he hoped Mr. Bloomberg would address today, Ms. Larrabee said.

Ms. Krueger, on the other hand, did offer her opinion. She said she expects the mayor to address MTA subsidies, Medicaid cuts, decreased aid to low-income college students, and a proposed increase in tuition at the City University of New York. Ms. Krueger also called on the mayor to address the manner in which money is distributed from Albany to the rest of the state.

One of the city Democrats who hope to win Mr. Bloomberg’s job this fall, the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, in testimony today before the Assembly’s finance committee, is expected to reiterate his anger with the Mr. Pataki for “short changing” the city. His aides said Mr. Miller would tell the committee today that the government is providing too little money for education, jeopardizing the city’s capital budget, and favoring suburban commuters at the expense of subway and bus riders.

“The speaker will be very clear that we shouldn’t continue to support a Republican governor who hurts New York City year after year,” Mr. Miller’s chief spokesman, Stephen Sigmund, told The New York Sun yesterday.

Mr. Bloomberg’s previous performances in Albany got mixed reviews from Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan’s West Side. He called Mr. Bloomberg “generally more outspoken” than his predecessor, Mayor Giuliani. But Mr. Gottfried said Mr. Bloomberg had “generally treated the governor so gently” that the governor felt very little pressure on important issues.”

The two issues Mr. Gottfried said he would like Mr. Bloomberg to address above all others are school aid and proposed cuts to Medicaid.

A source familiar with Mr. Bloomberg’s budget team, discussing the governor’s proposal, said, “Everyone who deals with the city’s budget is really upset.” The source added: “They all agree it is terrible for New York.” The source said the mayor’s team was analyzing the governor’s proposal “with a fine-tooth comb” to find areas of neglect toward the city. Publicly, however, aides to the mayor have given no indication of anger – or of any intention on the part of the mayor to display some in Albany.

“We’re still working on the address,” a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Jordan Barowitz, said. “The mayor said last week that he always fights for the city at every opportunity. He said he doesn’t yell and scream, but that you can be assured he always fights for the city.”

Despite the urging of some Manhattan legislators for Mr. Bloomberg to turn up the volume, switching gears at this point could appear to be nothing more than an election-year stunt.

“Making noise may be the smart thing to do politically in an election year,” Mr. Cohen said. “But it doesn’t bring in any more money for the city.”