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Long Island’s nine senators will become part of the Republican majority in the New York State Senate next month, and as their leader, Sen. Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre is expected to have their help in targeting hot-button issues that he says will benefit Long Islanders.

“We will be treated fairly as a region again, not just as an ATM for New York City,” Skelos said of the impact of the Long Island contingent, once called the “Gang of Nine,” who will take office as part of a two-seat Senate majority.

Skelos’s comments came during a phone interview with the Herald on Monday. Under Democratic party rule during the last two years, Skelos said, Long Islanders saw the elimination of STAR property tax rebate checks, the region’s share of a state school aid increase was reduced from 13 to 5 percent and, when there were cuts in state education funding, Long Island’s was a disproportionate 16 percent.

During his campaign, Skelos said his priorities would be to cut taxes and devise economic development initiatives that would create jobs. But keeping those promises may prove difficult, as the Legislature and Democratic Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo face a gaping $9 billion state budget deficit.

Skelos will operate with a 32-30 GOP majority in the upper chamber if, as expected, a State Supreme Court justice’s certification of Republican challenger Jack Martins’s victory over Democratic incumbent Craig Johnson in the 7th Senate District last Saturday withstands a promised appeal. Skelos will also match wits once again with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat who retains control of the 150-member lower chamber.

“The first priority has to be to bring the deficit under control,” Skelos said. “We’re going to work with Cuomo to obviously deal with the deficit that’s been left to us by the Democrats. As Cuomo has indicated, he … agrees with the Republican majority that there will not be any increase in taxes.