This will be Huntsman's first budget with his thumb print. Although he took office this past January, by far most of the 2005-06 budget work was done by former GOP Gov. Olene Walker's budget staff.

A special bipartisan Tax Reform Task Force has already approved a variety of proposed bills/tax reform ideas that in total could — depending on how final bills are drafted — result in more than $100 million in tax cuts.

The task force backed a 5 percent flat-rate income tax with tax credits for charitable and mortgage home interest (a modification of what Huntsman proposed). It also supports removing the state and local sales taxes from unprepared food, although there are several plans to do that.

Even with all the tax surpluses likely to come this year, Mower said the state has gone through some tight revenue years in the early 2000s, with only small, or no, pay raises for state employees and little growth in vital state programs.

"We recognize that because of recent lean years there are some unmet needs" in state programs, like Human Services, public and higher education.

"And we'll focus (more spending) on those areas," said Mower, adding, "we are for a responsible tax cut, while taking care of needs in education, economic development, transportation and public employee pay raises."

Worker pay

Just how much more Huntsman will recommend for state workers remains to be seen. The state Department of Human Resources proposed the governor include a 5.5 percent raise in his budget, including 2.5 percent for merit and 2 percent for cost of living. The price tag for that size of state employee raise is about $28 million.

Last year, state workers saw a 2.5 percent pay increase plus 2 percent in benefits.

Huntsman may get more respect from legislative leaders on his budget plan than did former GOP Govs. Mike Leavitt and Walker. Previous Republican-controlled Legislatures didn't even pass out those governors' budget summaries during the lengthy, 10-committee budget hearings. Executive branch aides passed out the legislative staff/governor office comparisons, or the 104 part-time legislators and the public would not have even seen them.

Mower says Huntsman budget bosses have been talking to GOP leaders, asking them to include the governor's recommendations as part of the hearing process. "If they don't do that, you can be sure the governor's budget will be seen" by legislators one way or another.

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