Huntsman said the current budget is still about $350 million short despite cuts made during a special legislative session earlier this year. He said the shortfall will be made up by having state agencies slice 1 percent from their budgets and dipping into cash set aside for transportation projects as well as the state's Rainy Day Fund. The road projects would then be funded through bonding, the governor said.

Lawmakers are usually loath to bond, but Huntsman insisted that is the best way for the state to go. His budget director, John Nixon, said the state would only be at about 85 percent of its bonding capacity under the governor's budget.

"I'm going to stand firmly by our budget," Huntsman said.

The GOP-controlled Legislature usually takes its own course in setting budgets, only glancing at the recommendations made by the governor, a fellow Republican.

Legislators met in special session in September to trim more than $350 million in ongoing and one-time tax monies from the current year's budget. In that effort, public education was held harmless.

Some legislative leaders want another special session this month, to get a jump on trimming ongoing budgets again before they can get at them in late January's general session.

"We have some real budget challenges," said incoming House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara. "We're ready to cut another $350 million" from the current budget, Clark said, adding that such action in early December would greatly help lawmakers start the difficult work of reducing budgets for next year.

Huntsman, who met with legislative leaders Thursday before making his budget public, said he still doesn't see a need for a special session before the 2009 Legislature starts on Jan. 26. Only the governor can call lawmakers into special session, and he — not lawmakers — sets the agenda.

Clark said even a special session the first week of January (with the new leadership teams and new legislators in office) would be helpful. "We're burning through money at a rate we can't afford — the hole we're in doubles almost every day," said Clark.

New Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said Huntsman is "backfilling" some of the cuts in the current budget with one-time tax surpluses from previous years. And that is dangerous, said Waddoups, and just makes lawmakers' job of balancing next year's budget more difficult. "It could affect our bond rating if we spend too much out of the Rainy Day Fund," Waddoups said.