Gov. Olene Walker will unveil the second — and final — budget of her administration today, a spending plan said to be boosted by double-digit growth in income and other tax collections.

Walker and her staff declined to release details of her budget Thursday, but Senate President-elect John Valentine, R-Orem, said it reflects "very good revenue growth," especially in income taxes.

"This is the rebound we were hoping for after the dismal failures in 2001 and 2002," Valentine said. Lawmakers were forced to cut state budgets two years in a row when tax revenues didn't come in as anticipated because of a faltering economy.

Where will the extra money be spent if Walker has her way? "She has spread it around, but she has obviously her favorites as anybody would. We all do," Valentine said. The budget may well reflect that education has always been at the top of the governor's priority list.

More revenue also could mean more money for state employees, who received only a 1 percent pay increase last session. House budget chairman Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, said lawmakers "hope to be able to do more" for state and public and higher education employees.

Valentine would not say whether Walker's budget included any tax increases. Before the governor released her 2004-05 budget, it was rumored she was considering a gas-tax hike.

But there turned out to be no tax increases in that budget, which totaled $8 billion and represented a 3.4 percent increase in state spending. The 2004 Legislature eventually adopted an $8.27 billion budget that included a tax increase on nursing homes.

Valentine said it would be premature to say whether the Legislature would be willing to raise taxes. "My suspicion is that there'll be a lot of pressure to not raise taxes, especially in light of the robust revenue increases."

The governor will be out of office when the 2005 Legislature convenes next month, but she is still required to submit a budget. Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr., who will be inaugurated two weeks before the Legislature meets, will likely offer his own budget recommendations.

Elected as lieutenant governor, Walker became governor in 2003 when former Gov. Mike Leavitt stepped down to head the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency. She ran against Huntsman and others for the GOP nomination for governor but was defeated at the Republican convention.

"I expect that if you took her budget and anybody else's budget, probably 90 percent of it we'd say we agree with. Some of it is fixed," Lt. Gov.-elect Gary Herbert said. That leaves what Herbert called fine- tuning.

Work is already under way on Huntsman's version of the budget, Herbert told reporters Thursday, after a luncheon speech about the new administration's priorities made to the Utah Foundation, a nonprofit organization that studies tax policies