With just a week remaining in the 2008 legislative session, lawmakers were still negotiating details of the state budget late Tuesday, but it looks as if several groups, including educators and transportation officials, will be disappointed.

New prioritized spending lists show no new money is likely to be given to the Utah Department of Transportation to fix things such as bridges and congested roads, and educators will receive a smaller pay raise than promised.

In addition, the low-income aren't likely to see funding for dental care. And tax cuts are no longer a valid option.

Lobbyists and agency heads used words such as "stunned" and "false expectations" to describe the spending lists.

"They raised the expectation of how they would treat education — they set the bar so high that I think teachers will feel let down," said Susan Kuziak, executive director of the Utah Education Association, in response to the priority list.

Sometime today, members of the Legislature's top budget committee are expected to meet and approve the spending lists released Tuesday. House Republicans agreed Tuesday to endorse the list, but GOP senators had not reached a consensus.

Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, said the delay in the Senate will slow the budget process, but legislators "still have a number of days left" to authorize more than $613 million in spending. The session is scheduled to end next Wednesday.

"As happens every year, there are some disappointments," said Bigelow, who also serves as the House budget chair. "That's the way the process works. No one gets what they want."

Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said after several hours of closed-door meetings between Senate and House leaders and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., that there are still some issues that need to be discussed by the GOP caucuses before the budget is finalized. Both the House and Senate caucuses will meet at noon today, and the Executive Appropriations Committee will meet at 5 p.m.

"We're very close but there's some fine tuning," especially on education issues, Bramble said. He added that the negotiations were less contentious than past years when lawmakers had more money to spend. "There's not the line in the sand or the chest-thumping we've seen in the past on any side. The toughest budget sessions we've had are when we've had a lot of money and can't say no."

The priority list approved by the House would give public education a 2.5 increase in the weighted pupil unit (WPU), along with a $1,700 teacher salary increase, although Bramble said that could be affected by other "key pieces on education." At the beginning of the session, education spending increases were running as high as the 7 percent that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. proposed in his budget.