So instead of the House and Senate standing against the governor, it may well be the Senate and governor standing against the House. And if a base budget is adopted within the first 10 days of the 2007 Legislature — as the new rules call for — then it could be the House Republicans who refuse to pass any kind of a tax cut and walk out the door Feb. 28 at adjournment.

Valentine said the Senate's GOP caucus isn't in any hurry to take a position on tax cuts. "The larger body has a tendency to draw broad strokes," the Senate leader said of the House's decision to come out immediately with an alternative to the governor's budget.

Even as Huntsman was making his budget public Tuesday, House Republicans were caucusing to decide on an alternative use for some of the state's huge surplus and revenue growth — the $300 million tax cut plus a $300 million increase in education spending.

That approach didn't make a lot of sense to Valentine. "I personally have a hard time understanding the connection between education funding and tax cuts," he said.

Instead, Valentine said, Senate Republicans talked about using the extra $1.5 billion-plus to pay down bonding debt and spend cash on future building projects. Transportation is also on their list of places to put more money, just as it is on the governor's.

"Those are general agreements with the governor," Valentine said. But the Senate GOP will wait, he said, to formally weigh in on those and other aspects of Huntsman's budget — including tax cuts.

"It's premature at this point," the Senate president said. "We feel like it's more important to methodically look through all the budget, to look through the recommendations of the governor, before we make a recommendation."

That could come as soon as Jan. 9, when the Senate Republicans are scheduled to caucus again. Of course, they could also decide then to abandon the base budget process altogether. Valentine said senators don't like assuming state agencies should be funded at previous levels.

"Agencies shouldn't always expect they're going to get last year's budget," he said. "That's what we worried this base budget does."

Mower said whatever lawmakers want to do with the base budget is fine.

"We've worked well with the Legislature under the current base-budgeting process, which began the year Gov. Huntsman took office," Mower said. "However, we're also willing to work with them to review department budgets in their entireties if they choose to modify the current process."

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Contributing: Josh Loftin

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com