When running for office a year ago, then-gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. said if he found himself as governor sitting in a meeting setting state budget priorities and the topic of the Huntsman Cancer Institute came up, he'd just leave the room to avoid a conflict of interest.

At least in his first round of state budget-setting this year, now-Gov. Huntsman has not had to walk out the door.

And because of legislative changes in how the state's tobacco settlement funds (which aid the Huntsman cancer-fighting institutions) are allocated — a change that occurred before Huntsman became governor — he may remain seated through such conversations for some time — perhaps never.

Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News last June that should funding for the Huntsman Cancer Institute or Hospital come up in his office, "I'd just step out of the room and let Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert handle it. I'd just not get involved."

That's because his family has long been a benefactor of the institute and hospital, located on the University of Utah campus and partly funded by the state.

"The issue (of Huntsman Cancer Institute and Hospital funding) has not come up, either in a meeting before (he was sworn in) or since he's been governor," said Huntsman spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi. "And so he has not had to excuse himself from any meeting."

Before becoming a trade ambassador for President Bush in 2001, Gov. Huntsman served as president of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, the family's charitable organization, which has taken on the job of raising tens of millions of dollars for the cancer institute and hospital. The Huntsmans have pledged more than $200 million of their own money for the cancer-fighting facilities.

In January, Jon Huntsman Sr., founder of the family's billion-dollar chemical empire, started selling off his personal stock in Huntsman LLC, the largest privately held petro-chemicals firm in the world, so he could funnel more personal funds to a variety of charities.

In that family foundation job, both Huntsmans personally lobbied the Utah Legislature to provide funds to help the institute and hospital.

In turn, the Legislature allocated state funds to the cancer-fighting operations at the U. Medical Center.

Each year the institute gets about $1.5 million for cancer research from the state's cigarette tax.

The hospital, which opened in June 2004, gets $4 million from the state's tobacco settlement money. The funds are funneled through the U. to help pay off $100 million in bonds issued to build and equip the state-of-the-art facility.

Because the state owns the Huntsman buildings, the Legislature also provides $1.4 million a year from general funds for building upkeep and maintenance.