That subcommittee also prioritized its one-time funding requests, starting with $5.5 million for teacher supplies, $2.5 million each for online testing and incentives for people to become math and science teachers, and $10 million for enrollment growth capital. Other funding requests, such as $16 million for elementary school math help, were not prioritized because members wanted to wait until they had more solid numbers at their disposal.

Despite the new money, some committees that have seen program cuts in recent years are keenly aware that the dollars still may not stretch far enough. The best example of that is the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, which has listed requests to restore funding as its top priority. This includes $7.6 million to restore adult dental benefits and $1.1 million to restore adult vision benefits to the state's Medicaid program, and $1.5 million for caseload growth within Medicaid.

Starting Wednesday the Executive Appropriations Committee will begin looking at the approved base budgets and each subcommittee. Ideally, the committee will have a bill prepared by Thursday or Friday to approve all of those base budgets and at least some salary increases for state employees, Senate Budget Manager Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said. All together, that bill could account for almost $8.2 million of the $8.6 billion budget.

Approving the majority of the budget will mean that new funding proposals, which could include hot-button items such as $95 million in transportation funding, beginning teacher bonuses and building construction will not delay the entire budget, said House Budget Manager Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley. As for the new requests, the Democratic and Republican caucuses in each chamber will determine their priorities, after which the Executive Appropriations will try to balance each of the caucus' requests while also considering the recommendations from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

The Executive Appropriations Committee has warned subcommittees that they will take their recommendations very seriously. The benefit of that, Bigelow said, is that all legislators will "feel empowered to participate in the budget process" and that they may be able to avoid some of the "games" that subcommittees play with their budgets.

At the end of the session, the goal is for every lawmaker to have felt like a player in the budget negotiations, Bigelow said, even though it would be easier for Executive Appropriations to simply decide on the budget without paying much attention to other recommendations. By giving more power to the subcommittees and asking the party caucus' to determine their priorities, he thinks everyone will be able to find things they like about the budget.

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com