House Minority Leader David Lujan and Assistant Minority Leader Kyrsten Sinema field a question from a reporter at a Jan. 26 news conference unveiling a budget proposal in response to one offered by GOP Appropriations chairmen in the House and Senate. The Democrats’ budget would make fewer cuts to education and health care.

House Democrats have proposed an alternate to the deep budget cuts Republican lawmakers have introduced, saying the state would be better served by deferring some state aid for higher education and health care to next year and protecting the jobs of all state employees.

House Democratic leaders said they hoped the counter proposal would help foster discussion with Republicans later this week when the House Appropriation Committee meets to craft a budget that closes a $1.58 billion deficit in fiscal 2009.

"We believe this is a great opportunity for us to put all our cards on the table and consider all options," said House Assistant Minority Leader Kyrsten Sinema.

The Democrats' proposal calls for reductions totaling $1.65 billion compared to a plan released by Republicans last week that identified $1.85 billion in cuts during the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Republicans Sen. Russell Pearce and Rep. John Kavanagh, the two chairmen of the Appropriations committees, released a budget proposal earlier this month that identified nearly $3 billion in budget cuts that can be made over the next 18 months in order to help bridge massive deficits. The proposal called for cutting nearly $1 billion from K-12 education and $500 million from university budgets in fiscal 2009 and 2010.
The options, the broad strokes of which were presented to lawmakers Jan. 15 in a special meeting, also included $530 million in cuts to public health care, $150 million from the state prisons and $176 million in staffing cuts that could result in job losses for state workers.

The Pearce/Kavanagh proposal called for a reduction of $1.84 billion in fiscal 2009, including $668 million in funds transfers, $445 million in specific agency cuts and $261 million in lump sum reductions.

Democrats, on the other hand, laid out a plan including $702 million in funds transfers, $202 million in specific agency cuts and $77 million in lump sum reductions. Democrats, though, also included a $75 million university rollover and $167 million in deferred payments.

Additionally, the Democrats' plan would not reduce state staffing levels. The options for solving the budget shortfall released earlier this month by the House and Senate Appropriations committee chairmen called for $52 million in personnel reductions.

Sinema said it would be unfair to workers to lay them off unexpectedly.