HARRISBURG — The House Democrats' leading budget negotiator proposed Monday to balance Pennsylvania's overdue spending plan by moving nearly $1.3 billion in subsidies for higher education out of the general fund and leaving it up to his fellow lawmakers to decide how to pay for them.

Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, said the new strategy reflected, at least in part, frustration over talks with Republican leaders and their out-of-hand rejection of broad-based tax increases this year.

"The problem is lines that have been drawn in the sand," Evans told reporters shortly after his proposal was voted, on a party-line basis, out of the committee his party controls.

Evans insisted his budget was in balance because it no longer included funding for the State System of Higher Education, community colleges and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. He called his approach a way to move the process forward.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said Evans' budget would require a massive tax increase and called separating out much of the higher-education spending "a transparent gimmick."

"I would have thought, after all this time, they would have come up with a more serious proposal," Pileggi said.

Rep. Mario Civera of Delaware County, the ranking Republican on Appropriations, said Evans' approach was "playing with children's lives" and called it dishonest.

"It was ridiculous what they did today," Civera said after the committee hearing. "This was a sham today. All it is, is a back step for Pennsylvanians."

House Republicans intend to push for a spending plan they outlined on Friday as an alternative to whatever budget bill eventually gets called up on the House floor, said caucus spokesman Steve Miskin.

Pennsylvania ended its 2008-09 budget year on June 30 nearly $3.3 billion below projected revenues and facing a similar cash problem for the current year.