OLYMPIA - House Democrats proposed a budget Tuesday that closes a $1 billion shortfall without borrowing money or asking voters for a sales-tax increase, but would allow local governments to boost taxes.

Their plan balances the current two-year budget largely by pushing certain payments to public schools into the next budget cycle, reducing funding to local governments and making more than $400 million in spending cuts.

"We've been working on this since October to try to come to a place where we have a budget that really doesn't damage the state over the long run, but gets us through the worst economic downturn since World War II," House Ways and Means Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina, said.

However, Rep. Gary Alexander, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said delaying hundreds of millions in state payments to K-12 schools simply sets the Legislature up for another large shortfall next year.

"They just kind of kick the can down the road," he said.

Hunter acknowledged that there will be a budget shortfall in the next biennium, but said it's not clear how large it would be under the House proposal.