"Frankly, Weber County is a long way from Salt Lake City," he said Thursday. "I'm not going to support it." Jenkins maintains if Salt Lake City leaders were better behaved, they would have their convention center money.

"If they had minded their P's and Q's, they'd have the money to do this right now," he said.

Asked if that comment was a reference to Anderson's public critiques, mostly negative, of the Legislature, Jenkins said: "I'm not going to say that, but you know what I was thinking."

Jenkins maintains the Senate's four-member Utah County delegation will cast the deciding votes in the Salt Palace debate, with Salt Lake County lawmakers and non-Salt Lake County lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle — just like when the issue came up in the general session last month.

"Everybody else was pretty much polarized between the Salt Lake County area and the non-Salt Lake County lawmakers," Jenkins said.

The main purpose of the session, which by law could last 30 days but will probably be wrapped up Wednesday, is how to deal with President Bush's No Child Left Behind federal education requirements.

"We're glad that it's on the special session (call). It will bring closure one way or another . . . in terms of placing U-PASS over No Child Left Behind . . . or running dual systems, whichever the case may be," said Patti Harrington, state superintendent of public instruction.

NCLB requires that all students read and do math well by 2014, regardless of race, income or disability. But Utah officials say NCLB is too strict in determining how students are progressing toward that goal, and they believe Utah is better fit to decide.

HB135, sponsored by Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, will be renumbered and discussed in the special session. The "states rights" issue basically would have Utah prioritize its education goals over NCLB when the two conflict and in deciding what's best for kids, and it seeks more flexibility in implementing the federal law.

The bill had unanimous backing but was stopped at the last Senate hurdle to give time for Utah to negotiate with the federal government.

Utah is asking the U.S. Department of Education to loosen testing requirements for students learning English as a second language and to use its own growth-centered accountability system, U-PASS, to meet NCLB requirements, among other points. The department last week did loosen some special-education testing requirements, provided kids still show improvement, nationwide.

Huntsman chief of staff Jason Chaffetz and Huntsman education deputy Tim Bridgewater both said Dayton's bill — originally introduced in the 2005 Legislature — will pass. "It might pass unanimously, and the governor will sign it," said Chaffetz.