ANNAPOLIS — Republican proposals to cut Gov. Martin O'Malley's fiscal 2011 spending plan single out programs that affect Montgomery and Prince George's counties and Baltimore city, according to administration figures obtained by The Gazette.

Montgomery County would lose $129 million in state aid from the budget-cutting plan offered by Sens. David R. Brinkley and E.J. Pipkin.

The administration estimates that Prince George's County would lose $119.6 million and Baltimore city $101.7 million. The cuts in aid to the state's 21 other jurisdictions total about $11.4 million. O'Malley (D) has proposed a $13.2 billion budget.

Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., a member of the Budget & Taxation Committee, said Thursday that the proposal disproportionately falls on three jurisdictions.

"I appreciate the effort, but it's laden with politics and not just a good-faith attempt to balance the budget," said Madaleno (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington.

Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market said Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's were not targeted.

"They receive most of the state's money," he said.

By and large, Democrats have welcomed the Republican plans to trim spending, offered at an unusual joint hearing Tuesday.

"Everything that they presented, this committee, all of it, will look at. We'll work with [analysts] and we'll look at potential impact long range," Appropriations Committee Chairman Norman H. Conway said. "If there's things there that we can utilize — and I think there are — we'll use them, we'll incorporate them," he said.

But the proposals are being offered in an election year in which politicians are facing an electorate expressing little affection for government spending.

A Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies poll last month said 44 percent of respondents blamed the state budget deficit on spending by government.

"Everybody's angry, everywhere you go," said Pipkin (R-Dist. 36) of Elkton. "That's usually followed up by, ‘Why can't the state control its spending to get in line with what its revenue is? Why do we need tax increases?' are really the questions that you get everywhere you go."

Over the past several months, Republicans have complained that they have been shut out of important meetings where spending policy has been discussed. As a result, the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate budget committees broke protocol and invited GOP leaders to present budget ideas at a special hearing Tuesday.

The Democrats asked the Republicans to propose $2.5 billion in cuts, which would match a spending level the GOP supported at a December meeting in which lawmakers set broad outlines in state spending.

Neither the House nor Senate Republicans reached $2.5 billion in cuts. The Brinkley-Pipkin plan cuts about $1.1 billion. A separate plan, presented by House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell and House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank, cut nearly $830 million.

"It shows you how tough it is even to get to where they got," House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis said.

Pipkin sounded hopeful that the proposals would help move the budget process forward.

"I would hope we are going to get away from the ‘gotcha' budget politics," he said. "In the past, one side produces the budget, and then we propose cuts. And then [there's] the gotcha game of, ‘You're cutting this, you're cutting that and running back [to constituents] and saying, see, they're just proposing these cuts to hurt you.'"

"If people are willing to come to the middle a little bit more instead of going to the extremes, we'll all be in better shape," said Conway (D-Dist. 38B) of Salisbury.

Even so, some lawmakers are well aware that 2010 is an election year. Del. Galen R. Clagett (D-Dist. 3A) of Frederick, an Appropriations Committee member, said he expects the GOP to press the budget politically.

"We didn't suddenly wake up one day and discover we were in the throes of a recession," he said. "It's going to take us a while to work our way out. I think [the Democrats have] been conscientious."

The plans from Senate Republicans and House Republicans have little overlap. Both would cut the Geographic Cost of Education Index, saving the state $126 million, but a budget line item that falls heavily on Montgomery, Prince George's and Baltimore.

The Senate Republican plan would reduce a $165.5 million subsidy to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and make transit changes that would lead to increased Maryland Transit Administration fares.

"The tough medicine has not been offered [by the Democrats]. We have offered the tough medicine," said O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby.

O'Donnell and Shank (R-Dist. 2B) of Hagerstown suggest changing the way education aid is distributed, saving $167 million, and auditing Medicaid billings, which they estimate would save the state $195 million.

They also would cut Baltimore city highway user revenue by $100 million.