The second bill was not "some draconian effort" to bypass any referendum, said Hughes. "It was a collaborative effort" with some voucher opponents "to fix" some of the concerns in the main bill, said Hughes.

Hughes went on to say that overall Utah's private school voucher plan — where parents who send their children to private schools can get between $500 and $3,000 a year (depending on family income) per child — "is one of the most broad-based in the nation."

Money to pay for vouchers comes out of the state's General Fund, not its education fund. And the law says public schools will still get full funding for five years for students who go to private schools — thus clearly not harming public education funding, Hughes said.

Huntsman said the other, unrelated bill he intended to ask lawmakers to consider in special session may have to wait until the 2008 Legislature. The bill, named "Henry's law" after a dog blinded and burned by his owner's now ex-husband, would make some acts of animal cruelty a felony. It failed to pass in the final minutes of the last session.

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