MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Top lawmakers said the state operating budget they're drafting as an alternative to one proposed by Gov. Robert Bentley likely will chop General Fund spending for non-education agencies next year more than Bentley proposed.

They also said their state operating and education budgets, like his, probably won't rely on tax increases.

But unlike Bentley's budget, lawmakers said theirs won't use the Education Trust Fund, the main source of state tax dollars for public schools and colleges, to bail out the General Fund, which supports Medicaid, prisons, courts and other non-education areas.

Rep. Jim Barton, R-Mobile, provided a preview of the legislators' operating budget now under construction. "I expect the budget to be extremely lean and to have what we are calling draconian cuts, with absolutely no tax increases," said Barton, who chairs the committee of the state House of Representatives that oversees the operating budget, which includes the General Fund.

Bentley proposed cuts in General Fund spending next year of 1 percent for prisons, 4 percent for the Public Safety Department and 10 percent for the agencies over agriculture and over mental health.