PHOENIX ‑‑ Gov. Jan Brewer wants to cut state funding for universities by 20 percent and aid to community colleges by about half to deal with a $1.1 billion deficit this coming fiscal year.

Brewer also proposed today eliminating free care for about 280,000 individuals now enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, virtually all of them adults. There would be no reduction care for children, pregnant women, the aged, blind and disabled.

But that change is contingent on approval from the Obama administration, something that is far from certain.

The federal health care law approved last year forbids states from trimming eligibility in their existing Medicaid programs. Brewer is counting on getting a waiver.

John Arnold, the governor's budget director, said if the waiver is not granted, then the state is stuck with $1 billion in annual expenses it cannot afford. At that point, he said, lawmakers will be stuck with two alternatives: Slash other state funding by that much more or eliminate the AHCCCS program entirely, giving up $7 billion each year in federal aid.

That latter course would return Arizona to the situation in 1982 when each county was responsible for providing health care for the poor.

Even if there is a waiver, that may not end the fight.

It was voters in 2000 who mandated that the state provide free care to everyone below the federal poverty level, about $18,300 a year for a family of three. And the Arizona Constitution generally preclude lawmakers from tinkering with voter‑approved programs.

"We would be surprised if we weren't challenged in state court,'' Arnold said.

State aid for K‑12 will remain approximately where it is right now.

Higher education, however, is another story.

Brewer's plan reduces state aid to the university system by $170 million, to $703.1 million. But Arnold said the cut is not as large as it would seem, with the schools having other sources of revenue, mainly tuition.

Arnold said, though, that Brewer doesn't believe this will result in an automatic hike in what students have to pay.

"That's a discussion we have to have,'' he said. And he said the governor doesn't want to do anything to price higher education out of the reach of much of the population.

Arnold said the governor believes there are "inefficiencies'' in the system that can be corrected.

"I think we can have a strong and healthy university system even with the budget reductions,'' he said.

"There's going to have to be reform on how we provide higher education in this state,'' Arnold continued. "But I think we can come out better for it.''

Community colleges now get more than $132 million. That will drop to $64 million.

Arnold said, though, that these schools already get half of their revenues ‑‑ about $1.1 billion statewide ‑‑ from local property taxes, with tuition making up another third. He said the governor presumes that the colleges will be able to keep overall spending about the same with increases in cash from both of the other sources.

One thing not on the table are higher taxes to bridge the gap, above and beyond the funds coming in from the temporary one‑cent hike in sales taxes approved by voters last May.

"We think there's a real limit to the amount of new revenues that you can pull out of an economy that is not in aggressive expansion,'' he said.