Still, Roskelley said, the governor is working with legislative leaders and would like to see a study of immigration. Huntsman, along with a coalition of business leaders and advocacy groups on both sides of the issue had supported the study idea.

"It's important to understand the total impact of what immigration policy would do to Utah," Roskelley said. "It's also important to factor in the federal government. ... The governor feels like it's important to understand what the federal government is going to do and what we should do to align with the federal policy."

Standing by itself as SB97 the task force received overwhelming support in the Senate, passing 25-1. But it was held in the House and combined with educational studies in HB490. Even so, approval seemed a given, after the House voted 71-0 to send HB490 to the Senate.

The conflict arose when the Senate changed HB490. House Majority Leader David Clark, R-Santa Clara, told the Deseret News late Wednesday that the bill would die in the House because the Senate reneged on an education-related agreement.

On Thursday, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said the disagreement stemmed over how to study math, science, and performance pay for teachers.

The House had added five extra meetings of the Education Interim Committee to look at the issue, while the Senate changed the bill to create a task force.

So, amid the disagreement, two other task forces died as well. Along with the immigration task force, another casualty was the Education Systems for the 21st Century Task Force, which would have studied how the state's public and higher education systems meet the education and work force needs of the state in the global economy.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com