ANNAPOLIS — Republican proposals to balance the state budget would simply shift much of the burden onto counties and cause further pain to residents suffering the most from the recession, a Maryland Association of Counties official said.

"We're having a tough time with our budgets now," said Andrea Mansfield, associate director of the Maryland Association of Counties. "Local officials only have so many options to cover that expense. One is to raise taxes, and the other is to cut services drastically."

A union official representing state workers agreed.

"There were a lot of nice charts about how these proposals would save money, but when you get past the charts, there's a lot of pain there for employees, for the state and for the residents of the state," said Sue Esty, assistant director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland.

Republican legislators presented their budget proposals at an unusual hearing Tuesday in Annapolis. Democratic leaders last month offered GOP lawmakers the chance to have their say before each chamber's budget committee.

The proposal by Republican senators to shift half the cost of teacher pensions to the counties as well as more of the funding for police officers, highway projects and other programs comes at a time when county governments are facing their own budget woes, Mansfield said.

Sen. David R. Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market, who presented legislation that was co-sponsored by Sen. E.J. Pipkin (R-Dist. 36) of Elkton, said local aid is "breaking the back" of the state's finances. Their bill would cut more than $1 billion from the $13.2 billion spending plan submitted by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

The Brinkley-Pipkin bill would remove $450.2 million from the state's ledgers by shifting half of the burden of teacher pensions to the counties.

The bill also would require state employees to contribute more of their wages to their pension fund.

That would, in effect, be another 2.5 percent pay cut for state employees on top of the cuts they have received through furloughs, Esty said.

A proposal by House Republicans for an additional 1 percent reduction in the budgets of all state agencies would mean more state workers would be joining the growing ranks of the unemployed, Esty said.

"When you lay off people, it means fewer services," she said.

Asked if she saw any good ideas in the Republican plans, Esty said, "I'm trying to see something good, but I can't find it."

Staff writers Douglas Tallman and Sean Sedam contributed to this report.