That money had been the focus of debate between House and Senate Republicans and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and was supposed to be part of a later bill. Instead, it became part of the supposedly noncontroversial base budgets and would have forced the governor's hand if higher revenue projections were not released shortly after the bill was passed.

This year, the bills are expected to be debated in the first two weeks, Bigelow said, and to pass without "anything the governor is opposed" to funding.

"There can always be floor amendments, but I don't expect any surprises," Bigelow said.

Politically, approving a base budget has advantages. For one, any bill passed during the session has to be vetoed by the governor within 10 days, which would allow legislators to override a veto during the regular session. It also means that the entire budget cannot be held hostage because of disagreements over how to spend new money, Senate Budget Manager Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said.

"It is nice to get it done" in the first couple of weeks, Hillyard said. "It means that the last night the budget isn't hanging in the balance, so there isn't manipulation."

The base budget did elicit some concern, especially from educators worried that their growth would outpace the allocated funding. But members of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee said they expect more money, and the debates about how to spend it, to come later in the session.

"SB3 was prepared as a starting point," said Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, "and my suspicion is, we'll spend the rest of the session debating the issues you raise."

As for the proposed tax cut, which House Republicans have put at $230 million tax cut and Huntsman has settled on $60 million, Senate Republicans remained undecided after a Tuesday lunch caucus. In fact, much of their closed-door discussion centered around proposed legislation on a wide variety of topics — although they didn't vote on any of those, either.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said that the caucus is concerned about future impacts of removing the taxes. Additionally, there's already about $1 billion in requests from state agencies "that look realistic" and another $1 billion that doesn't.

"That's one of the struggles," Valentine said, of trying to find a way to balance the budget and get rid of the sales tax on food. "There is concern about just taking it off blindly." Still, he said, Senate Republicans haven't given up on the idea. "It's still very much on the table."

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Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche, Jennifer Toomer Cook

E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com