Because the state owns the Huntsman buildings, the Legislature also provides $1.4 million a year from general funds for building upkeep and maintenance.

The state will pay $40 million on the hospital bonds; the Huntsman Foundation and other hospital fund-raising will come up with the remaining $60 million.

In 2000 Utah began getting millions of dollars each year via a complicated court settlement involving a consortium of large tobacco producers. The Legislature prioritizes those tobacco settlement funds.

At first, 50 percent of the funds went into a permanent tobacco trust fund, from which only the interest can be used. Fifty percent went to a variety of tobacco-related programs, including teenage tobacco use prevention programs and cancer-fighting efforts.

Starting in 2001, the Legislature gave $4 million yearly to pay off part of the Huntsman Cancer Hospital bonds.

Last year it appeared that in 2006 or beyond, depending on how much cash Utah was to receive in the huge nationwide tobacco company settlement each year, the annual $4 million bond donation to the hospital could be in jeopardy. State and institute officials worried that there would not be enough tobacco settlement cash to meet the bond payments.

Since the state would never default on any of its bonds, the governor and/or his budget staff would have had to recommend how to come up with the money, a possible conflict that Gov. Huntsman recognized.

But state budget director Richard Ellis said this week that the 2004 Legislature reallocated the tobacco settlement funds. That change, combined with several "balloon" payments soon to come from the tobacco industry, will provide more than enough cash to meet state-promised bond payments, Ellis said.

If the tobacco money flows in and is distributed, as planned, Huntsman will never be called upon to find more taxpayer money for the institute and hospital that bear his family's name.

That's because the 50-50 formula for the tobacco funds was switched to a 20-80 split, with 80 percent of the funds being spent each year on various programs, including the hospital. The 2004 Legislature changed the formula again for fiscal 2005, this time to a 30-70 split.

Thus, says Ellis, the $4 million earmarked for the hospital's bond payments is now more secure.

The funding for the Huntsman Cancer Institute and Hospital that begins July 1, the start of the fiscal 2005-06 fiscal year, was recommended by outgoing Gov. Olene Walker in December. And when Huntsman took over in January and presented some budget modifications to the 2005 Legislature, he didn't suggest any changes for the institute/hospital funding from years past, said Ellis.

"It really hasn't come up" in budget discussions with the governor or his staff, said Ellis.

However, there is a twist that could be discussed down the road.

Starting in fiscal 2008, several "balloon" payments in tobacco funds will be coming to Utah, said Ellis. The state's annual tobacco take will go from around $26 million to around $38 million, he explained.

Accordingly, there will be considerably more money for tobacco/cancer-fighting programs. Will the institute or hospital ask for more state money in light of that extra cash?

"There are no plans to request additional funding," said Linda Aagard, spokeswoman for the institute.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com