TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Teachers and other employees of financially distressed districts would be forced to take pay cuts under a Republican bill that won approval from a House committee Tuesday amid partisan sniping over how Florida should cope with a growing budget deficit.

The proposed committee bill also would cut public school spending by nearly $500 million. That's about half the total $1 billion reduction being considered by the Republican-controlled Legislature during a two-week special session that began Monday.

The House Prekindergarten-12 Appropriations Committee's 5-3 party-line vote to introduce the bill came after the chamber's Democratic leader, Rep. Franklin Sands of Weston, issued a statement saying "Republican budget cuts will impact every Floridian, working families, and our youngest and most vulnerable citizens."

The state faces a current-year budget deficit of at least $2.3 billion. Besides spending cuts, lawmakers plan to tap reserves, borrow from state trust funds and increase court fees and traffic fines.

Democrats are angry because Republicans have refused to take up other revenue-raising proposals. They include a $1-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax and Gov. Charlie Crist's plan to expand Seminole Indian gaming, with the state getting millions of dollars in return.

"It's sad that we're being forced to play with half a deck," said Rep. Martin Kiar, D-Davie. "It's not fair to cut the budget on the backs of our children."

Republican leaders say they don't want to deal with other revenue-raising issues until the regular legislative session begins in March.

House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, responded to Sands by accusing Democrats of "partisanship that could doom efforts to balance the state budget and help put Florida back on a sound path to prosperity."

Democrats, though, aren't the only ones unhappy with the impending cuts. Crist, a Republican, said lawmakers are poised to chop more than he'd like. He had proposed about $550 million in cuts.

"One of the concerns I have is that we make these reductions without hurting the end user -- the students as it relates to education, particularly -- and the most vulnerable in our state," Crist said. But he added, "We'll continue to have discussion about that and I remain hopeful."

Proposals in both chambers to cut $10 million from an experimental program that helps foster children and youngsters in troubled homes could cost the state up to $40 million in federal matching money, said Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon. Florida is the only state that gets extra federal money for the program.

"This will have a negative impact on our ability to protect the kids," Sheldon said.

The House provision to cut school employees' pay in distressed districts may be no more than political rhetoric because it's not included in a similar proposed Senate bill.

It's also unconstitutional, said Ron Meyer, a lawyer for the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union.

Meyer said it would violate state constitutional provisions on collective bargaining and contracts. He also argued it would amount to a personal income tax, also barred by the Florida Constitution, on school employees.

The measure would affect districts declared to be in financial emergency because they have less than a 2 percent general fund balance in their operating budgets and have failed to correct the problem within 30 days of the declaration.

As of June, when school budgets were last reviewed, seven counties fell below that mark: Columbia, Miami-Dade, Franklin, Gulf, Jefferson, Manatee and Taylor.

Although the dollar amount of the proposed school cuts is large, it would reduce per-student spending by only about $140, or 2 percent.

Broward County School Board Chairwoman Maureen Dinnen told the House panel schools cannot wait until the regular session for new revenue.

"We will cut back programs and help we have in areas of reading, math, science and my field, social studies," Dinnen said. "We will cut back elective subjects, advanced classes."

Republicans on the committee, though, stuck with no-new-taxes-now stance.

"I'm not sure who we are going to be taxing," said Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale. "Perhaps maybe you'd like to tax the teachers who have lost their jobs, or perhaps those families that are struggling with foreclosure."