AUGUSTA – True to their word, Democratic leaders on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee demonstrated Thursday that nearly all options are up for consideration in their quest to close a $250 million gap in the state budget cycle that begins July 1.

But some department heads who would be charged with administering the proposed cuts called them “irresponsible” and said the wounds would be too deep.

One commissioner threatened to resign if forced to make the drastic reductions being considered.

Democrats and Republicans are likely to emerge from the process with competing proposals that are expected to reflect a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases to replace a $250 million borrowing provision in the budget.

“I am committed to eliminating the borrowing and putting forth a reasonable package and budget for this state,” said Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, in a prepared statement.

The Democratic majority approved the measure as part of Gov. John E. Baldacci’s proposed budget in March.

But in the aftermath of recent base closure announcements, Democrats maintain that the economic conditions no longer exist which once supported the borrowing plan to balance the state’s $5.7 billion two-year budget.

As a result, legislative budget writers convened their first open meeting Thursday to identify what savings might be gained by adopting all or some of the suggestions from a list of 191 proposed spending reductions totaling more than $300 million.

The outline of proposed cuts reflected submissions by Democrats and Republicans, none of whom were identified in the seven-page spreadsheet. Many of the proposals duplicated each other, confounding any attempt to arrive at an exact tally.

Legislative staff surmised there were a minimum of about $300 million in proposals, many of which had never been seen by department commissioners.

It was almost too much for Marty Magnusson, chief of the state’s Department of Corrections.

Magnusson walked in, looked at the proposal sheet and saw that someone thought his department could get by on about $5 million less than has been budgeted for the next two years.

“This figure isn’t a figure we have seen before – it’s pretty staggering,” Magnusson told the budget panel.

Magnusson said the adult prison system in Maine was surviving on a “day-to-day” basis and that a cut of such a large magnitude would almost certainly involve laying off as many as 40 employees.

The commissioner said he would probably focus on making the cuts on the juvenile side of the system. He stiffened slightly when it was suggested the reductions in staff be made at facilities housing adults, where guard-to-prisoner ratios are already wanting.

“Anybody that directed that would be irresponsible and I would not be part of that implementation because there would be a loss of life if we cut to that level,” Magnusson said.

Emotions ran just as high in response to a proposal directing the Department of Administrative and Financial Services to slash nearly $27 million from the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program.

Rebecca Wyke, DAFS commissioner, said the suggested cut would reduce reimbursement under the program to 75 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2006.

“I think it’s fair to say that we have businesses in this program – which is a 12-year program – that would consider this as essentially a broken promise,” Wyke said. “We [the Baldacci administration] would have some concerns about it.”

Rep. Joseph Brannigan, D-Portland and the House chairman of the Appropriations Committee, countered that his panel was operating under the assumption that “all [departments] must take cuts” in order to help reach the $250 million target.

“To say it’s a broken promise, well, we’re going to be breaking promises all over the place here,” Brannigan said.

How many of the cuts or to what degree they are considered by the committee remains to be seen. The proposals ranged from a $10,000 reduction for the Maine Bond Bank to a $36 million slash in the state’s MaineCare program, which provides health services for the poor.

In addition to the possible cuts, lawmakers will be looking at new revenues, including one plan to broaden the sales tax that could raise more than $300 million over the two-year budget cycle.

Though that tax plan calls for reducing income taxes and bolstering the budget stabilization fund, Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston and Senate chairman of the budget panel, said there was no reason why some of the suggested new taxes couldn’t be considered to offset the cuts.

“It’s all part of the mix,” she said.