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NASHVILLE -- Senate Republicans outlined a range of budget cuts Wednesday, from forgoing $62 million in federal stimulus money for solar projects to more than $12 million in social programs ranging from HIV/AIDS to infant mortality programs.

Senate Finance Chairman Randy McNally of Oak Ridge said the cuts are needed to balance the spending plan proposed by Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen.

"We just feel like it's a not a good time of year to be borrowing a lot of money when our revenues are continuing to trend down, and don't appear to have reached the bottom," the Oak Ridge Republican said.

McNally said the cuts for social programs include grants that Bredesen had targeted for future reductions. They include $3.3 million for a child care program in danger of becoming eligible for welfare, $2.8 million for the Health Department's HIV/Aids program and $1 million for the Administrative Office of the Courts to spend on lawyers for poor defendants.

McNally laughed off a question about whether Democrats would suggest Republicans are trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and helpless.

"Well, the first part of the statement is right: we are trying to balance the budget," he said.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis said he plans to fight several of the proposed cuts.

"I intend on each of the draconian matters on having a separate vote on each and every section," he said.

Kyle said he takes particular exception to the proposal to exclude bonds for bridge projects and buildings in higher education.

"We've got steel at an all time low, we've got labor at an all-time low," he said. "We can do more with less, and yet we're not willing to borrow to make the situation work.

"You wouldn't do that in business, you would go forward."

Kyle said he will resist a related attempt to shift the source of pre-kindergarten funding from the general fund to lottery reserves. Democrats consider the proposal the first step in dismantling the program for 4-year-olds from poor families.

The proposed GOP cuts include money needed to buy land in Haywood County that would house a 5 megawatt solar generation plant, and funds to build the University of Tennessee's new Cherokee Farm Innovation Campus in Knoxville that would be the home to a solar research institute.

Bredesen has announced that $62 million in federal stimulus money earmarked for alternative energy would fund the two solar projects. The GOP proposal also would eliminate $2 million in federal money for a welcome center at the solar plant.

McNally acknowledged that cutting funding for the Cherokee campus would affect constituents at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who have been slated to be involved in the solar research center.

"I'm hopeful people understand that one has a duty to all the taxpayers of Tennessee," he said. "I can't just cut projects in West Tennessee."

House Speaker Kent Williams said he expects a bipartisan House budget proposal to make less drastic cuts. The Elizabethton Republican was dismissive of the proposal advanced by his GOP colleagues in the Senate.

"This is an example of why we need pre-K in Tennessee," Williams joked.

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