By Joe Biesk
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - House Democrats sent the governor and Senate president an outline of their budget counterproposal on Thursday.

The move comes less than a week before the end of the fiscal year. Starting July 1, the state will be without a legislatively approved state spending plan.

In an accompanying letter, House leaders asked Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Senate President David Williams to work on a budget compromise.

"We hope that you will now join us in a concerted effort to reconcile any remaining differences so that we can produce a quality budget for the 2005-2006 biennium," the Democrats wrote.

On Tuesday House Democrats highlighted their proposal, which included much of the governor's plans for corporations. However, the Democrat's proposal did not include sales tax increases on cigarettes or other products.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said he sent the information so "they would have an idea of what was in our proposal, not just from reading it in the press or seeing it on TV."

But, Williams said the Democrats were being "disingenuous" and had not sent a detailed plan. Rather, they sent general principles of their proposal along with charts.

Democrats were "grandstanding" and "trying to rule or negotiate by press release," Williams said.

"They have not prepared a budget, and have not prepared a tax proposal. They have prepared a press release ... ," Williams said. "They've offered no proposal on anything. This is a ruse. It's really sad."

However, Richards said House Democrats were trying to compromise.

Their plan, he said, included portions of the governor's tax proposal. It also would have dropped 190,000 low-income taxpayers from the tax rolls, Richards said.

"They've made no compromise," Richards said. "Certainly we think this is a very good step."

Still, it was already too late for lawmakers to negotiate, have a special session and pass a budget before the end of the fiscal year, Williams said.

The 2004 General Assembly adjourned in April without passing a budget.

Lawmakers were deadlocked over whether to include the governor's tax plan in the budget. The Senate wanted Fletcher's tax plan included, and the House did not.