Victorian government will hand down the 2020-21 state budget on Tuesday

Premier Daniel Andrews, predictably, has already rolled out some big ticket budget items, with none larger or more significant than the state and federal governments teaming up to build a rail link between the airport and the Melbourne CBD and the $5.3 billion social housing announcement.

Time will tell what the budget delivers for North-East Victoria specifically in terms of new spending following a 2020 like no other that began with bushfires, rolled into COVID-19 and became a whole lot worse for border cities like Wodonga when the decision was made to shut the NSW-Victoria border.

Thankfully, the border closure has ended with its removal coinciding with a further easing of restrictions which has given the community and businesses a clear guide what COVID normal is going to look like heading into summer.

But as always in our patch a priority area remains health infrastructure.

In a perfect world, Victoria will come to the party with a bigger contribution to the Albury hospital emergency upgrade with NSW dwarfing Victoria in terms of funding commitments to date.

According to NSW, the Victorian government, which runs the cross-border health service, is already sitting on $30 million for the project still stuck in the planning phase.

Victoria has chipped in $6 million and another big chunk of cash would provide rock solid proof Spring Street is right behind AWH for the long haul.

Causing some ongoing unease in the community is the long delay in the signing of the inter-government agreement between the Victorian and NSW governments on future infrastructure needs at both the Albury and Wodonga hospitals.

The two states must be on the same page if an even longer term vision of a greenfield site, super hospital, servicing North-East Victoria and southern NSW is ever realised.

Imagine the economic boost it would provide for Albury-Wodonga post COVID.