BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration is weighing cuts to state services and proposing tax breaks for businesses, as it seeks to keep the state's annual operating budget for next year in balance.

Some lawmakers on a joint House and Senate budget panel worried Friday that budget cuts could fall most heavily on health care services for the poor and disabled.

Jindal's top budget crafter, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, said it was too soon to tell what services would be on the chopping block in the administration's 2008-09 spending proposal that will be presented to lawmakers next month for the year that begins July 1.

Davis asked each state department to provide lists of possible budget cuts that could be made in their activities, up to 25 percent of state funding. She said she's looking for lowest performing programs and duplicative services.

The current year budget totals more than $30 billion.

The state has enough money to continue all of its current programs if Jindal and lawmakers wanted -- but the spending plans would have to use one-time sources of cash to cover ongoing expenses and would leave little room to start new initiatives or beef up existing ones.

Jindal, a Republican, wants to cut down on the use of one-time cash in the budget and will ask lawmakers to approve between $100 million and $125 million in business tax breaks, Davis said.

That would require significant trimming to programs and services, and the two largest areas open and unprotected from budget cuts are health care services and higher education programs.

Davis said Jindal doesn't support cuts to colleges. She wouldn't, however, talk about what type of cuts the administration may propose for health care programs.

"I'm not ready to answer that question," she said when asked by reporters.

Sen. John Alario said he hopes the state's finances will improve when income estimates are revised in May, to help avoid cuts to services on which he said the state's poorest and most vulnerable citizens often depend.

Alario, D-Westwego, said Jindal's advisers should "take a hard look" at the state's finances before holding a special session to push business tax cuts that he said could cost up to $300 million. Jindal wants the business tax session before the regular legislative session begins in March. Alario said lawmakers won't have had time to review the state's overall budget picture by then.

"Maybe we shouldn't rush into a special session immediately," he said.

House Speaker Jim Tucker said the new governor and new Legislature should fund its priorities rather than simply continue the priorities of a previous governor and past lawmakers.

"The sharpest knife cuts the cleanest," said Tucker, R-Terrytown.

The state would need $550 million more than it has to spend in recurring cash to continue all services it is providing this year and account for inflationary costs and the mandated growth in public school spending, according to projections outlined to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.

Lawmakers could fill the entire gap with more than $650 million in one-time dollars not yet spent in the current year, but Davis said the governor wants to shrink the dependence on one-time money for ongoing expenses, though she didn't say by how much in the upcoming year.

Critics say that using one-time sources of revenue for regular, recurring programs puts the state in a shaky budget situation where it's spending more money than it's sure to have in the next year.

Louisiana's budget has regularly included such financial maneuvers to stay balanced and keep services afloat.

The current year's budget spends more than $800 million in one-time money on ongoing programs, most of it funneled into the Medicaid program that provides health care services to children, the poor, the elderly and disabled residents, said Ray Stockstill, a top budget adviser in Davis' office.

The Jindal administration and lawmakers also will craft plans to spend a $1.1 billion surplus from the 2006-07 budget year that ended June 30. Those spending plans are limited by the Louisiana Constitution for one-time items like construction, road repairs, debt payment and coastal restoration projects.

Lawmakers on the budget committee said they were interested in paying down retirement debt and boosting road construction spending with the surplus cash. Davis said the administration still was considering its recommendations for the money.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)