The $2 million would have attracted nearly $5 million in matching federal dollars and would have allowed an estimated 40,000 blind, aged and disabled Utahns to receive emergency dental care. A full restoration of dental benefits, a so-called "optional" service under the Medicaid program, would cost $3.9 million and served 65,000 recipients.

Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, had an amendment prepared that would have authorized the full $3.9 million and removed the emergency designation. By not even addressing the issue, the Senate "sorely disappointed the citizens of Utah," he said.

"I'm just dumbfounded at the insensitivity of" Senate and House Republicans, Mayne said. "It's frustrating to know that we've got much money in a time of plenty that we can't take care of the neediest in our community."

But Republicans had several objections to "opening the budget" in mid-year, just months after six weeks of budget hearings during the 2006 Legislature placed the dental spending lower-down on the Medicaid spending priorities. A number of Republicans said that Health Department officials could fund the $2 million dental aid anyway, although Huntsman administrators said such funding couldn't happen without legislative approval.

Several legislative Democrats said that a Wednesday morning Deseret Morning News article about how Huntsman had cornered conservative GOP legislators politically on the issue this election year had angered members of his majority party.

In a noon House Republican caucus, Rep. Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said: "We are in a box, in a hole on this. The governor is making us look at his budget (only) in the special session. It is very unsettling."

By refusing to take a direct vote on the dental aid issue, GOP lawmakers may have ducked a vote that Democratic challengers could have used against them this fall.

Displeasure at Huntsman took several forms Wednesday. Most of the 56 members of the House GOP caucus signed an open letter to Huntsman asking that he call a special session so $70 million set aside months ago for a state personal income tax cut can be given to Utahns now.

Mower declined to commit to such a session, saying Huntsman still wants "reform" rather than just a tax cut. Huntsman still supports a "dual tax system," where those wanted Huntsman's "fairer, flatter" 5 percent income tax could choose that, while others could opt to file their returns under the current 7 percent tax system.

How upset were some legislative Republicans at the governor?

At press deadlines, the House Rules Committee was holding a bill that would have given 3.5 percent raises to Huntsman and other top state executives starting July 1. Other state workers were given similar pay raises by the 2006 Legislature that adjourned March 1.