HARRISBURG — It’s what everyone in the Pennsylvania Capitol is asking: How will Gov. Tom Wolf balance his budget proposal without a major tax increase?

Most details of the Democratic governor’s proposal, to be released Feb. 7, are still under wraps. But Wolf says it will be the first he has proposed without a sales or income tax increase that, in his first two years, he viewed as necessary to offset a huge, long-term deficit he inherited and help fix huge disparities between public schools.

Spending in the fiscal year starting July 1 could exceed $33 billion, and the big problem is this: Analysts are projecting a $2 billion-plus hole in the state’s finances.

Without a major tax increase, Wolf insisted he will not resort to the sort of “smoke and mirrors” that the Republican-controlled Legislature has preferred to tax increases to paper over Pennsylvania’s persistent post-recession deficit.

In the past few years, that has meant siphoning one-time cash from off-budget programs, booking revenues or savings that may never materialize and putting off big payments to counties and insurers.

“I’m trying to do this in a responsible way,” Wolf said Thursday.

It’s also not clear to what extent Wolf will try to boost aid to public schools, perhaps his top priority.

The potential for a lean budget has stoked alarm in some quarters. That includes county governments, which have felt squeezed by the state for more than a decade into footing a larger share of the cost to handle abused and neglected children and services for the addicted, mentally ill and intellectually disabled.

“When someone says, ‘You need to find ways to be more efficient,’ there is only a very small margin there, and we are already down to the bone,” said Douglas Hill, the executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

When state aid for those services does not increase, the result is effectively a statewide property tax increase, imposed by county governments, Hill said.

So far, Wolf has given some hints about how he will balance his budget proposal.

For starters, Wolf has announced steps to trim employee complements in executive-branch agencies, consolidate administrative functions and close halfway houses and two prisons. His administration is also working to cut the cost of managing care for the most expensive Medicaid patients, including the elderly in nursing homes.

Those steps, however, are viewed as marginal compared with the deficit.

Wolf has said he will renew his push for a tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production, something lawmakers have rejected for nearly a decade now. He could take a swipe at hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits that benefit private schools and companies. He could target some $250 million in slot-machine gambling tax revenue that is pumped into the horse racing industry.