Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday delivered a budget plan that makes good on her promise to pare down state government, relying on heavy cuts to health care and higher education to help eliminate a massive state deficit.

Her $8.9 billion plan closes a deficit that she projects at $1.15 billion for fiscal 2012 and does it without raising general taxes. But her plan hinges on the federal government's permission to drop 280,000 people from state health-care rolls and depends on additional borrowing and other gimmicks.

In her written message to lawmakers, Brewer, a Republican, blasted the federal government for hijacking control of the state budget. Federal stimulus dollars as well as federal health-care reform, which have certain spending requirements, resulted in Washington, D.C., "effectively seizing control of every major component of our General Fund budget except the state prison system."

The governor's spokesman did not respond to a request seeking an interview with Brewer about her budget, which starkly painted her response to the federal constraints: Seek a way out from under federal rules so she can reduce the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid alternative, and save the state $1.5 billion over the next two years. She wants a waiver that would allow Arizona to drop coverage of childless adults and curb funding to some low-income parents, and blind and disabled people.

If approved, the coverage reductions would last two years. After that, federal Medicaid dollars would help cover Arizona patients under the terms of federal health-care reform.

The waiver, however, is far from certain.

If it's not granted, the consequences would be severe, said John Arnold, director of the Governor's Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting. "It's really cataclysmic if we don't get the waiver," Arnold said.

The governor has no backup plan, he said.

However, lawmakers have broached alternatives, such as backing out of Medicaid altogether or shifting the burden of health care to the 15 counties. Brewer does not support those options, Arnold said.

Others predicted the state will face cataclysmic results from cutting thousands of Arizonans off health coverage.

Not only would 280,000 people lose coverage, but hospitals could take a hit of $540 million from lost business, harming the overall economy, said Laurie Liles, chief executive officer of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

"It will increase the uncompensated care hospitals already provide, threaten the financial well-being of hospitals and force them to make very difficult decisions about services and cost-shifting to commercial health plans," she said.

Republican legislative leaders welcomed the plan. House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, called it an "excellent framework" for the Legislature, which begins budget hearings Tuesday.

Democrats, meanwhile, said that cuts to health care will cripple one of the state's few job-growth areas and that reductions to the universities will depress economic competitiveness.

The budget proposes a $170 million cut to the state universities, a loss of 20 percent in state funding. Community colleges would lose $73 million, a 55 percent cut in the state's contribution. Arnold said Brewer is convinced the state can still produce top-quality graduates and provide education to people with lower incomes. But the funding will have to come from innovations at the schools. Arnold said community-college officials told him they expect a boost in their property-tax collections next year, which should blunt the loss of state dollars.

State spending for K-12 education stays at about the same level as the current year, although schools will lose federal stimulus dollars that have buoyed them the past two years.

"It looks like the governor and her staff have done the best they can to spare education," said Chuck Essigs,government-relations officer for the Arizona School Budget Officers Association.

Brewer, in her budget message, noted her fight to prevent deep education cuts, an effort voters affirmed when they approved a temporary sales-tax hike in May.

For a fourth straight year, the budget has no money for the School Facilities Board, which pays for school construction and improvements. However, Brewer proposed a $10 million fund to cover emergency repairs.

Prisons are one of the few areas recommended for an increase: an extra $8.4 million to hire 100 new correctional officers next year, to be followed by 200 more over the next two years. She also calls for a $50 million bond to cover "critical needs" at the state's 10 prison complexes.

Brewer's plan would cause an unspecified number of layoffs if her proposal to consolidate state agencies passed.

She suggests a merger of the Departments of Gaming and Racing, among others.

The budget eliminates the six furlough days that state employees expected in fiscal 2012 and cuts the last furlough day for this budget year.

Brewer's plan is silent on emergency funding for certain medical transplants that Democrats and others have pushed, and it does not address the anticipated impact of any of the tax cuts and incentives Brewer and lawmakers have promised as a way to energize the economy.

The governor's plan also closes the deficit in the current-year budget, which she estimates at $763 million. This budget solution relies heavily on accounting gimmicks, but Arnold said that, with fewer than six months left in the budget year, options are limited.

A key component is a $330 million overnight loan from the First Things First program. Operators of this early-childhood health-and-development program said Brewer approached them about a loan after voters rejected a ballot measure that would have ended the program and turned its money over to legislative control.

Other solutions to this year's deficit include $107 million in cuts to human-service and public-safety agencies, using $101 million in stimulus dollars to pay for shortfalls in K-12, and rolling over another monthly payment to the public schools to the next fiscal year.

That means more than a third of the state's payments to the public schools this fiscal year have been delayed, increasing the state's debt.

Republic reporters Mary K. Reinhart and Alia Beard Rau contributed to this article.