Utah legislators will be faced with an estimated $850 million budget deficit when they convene their 2010 session early next year.

While the conversations, and conjecture, about how to deal with the gaping hole left by plummeting tax revenues have already begun, the first real step in the process will come mid-December when Gov. Gary Herbert submits his budget proposal to lawmakers.

Herbert has pledged to deliver a fiscal package that finds balance without a tax increase, but legislative leaders have already recognized that some new revenue sources — including tax increases — are in the offing, mainly to avoid further damage to already depleted funding for education and human services.

New revenue streams likely to be considered include re-instating the full sales tax rate on food and increasing the cigarette/tobacco tax. Business leaders and advocates for the underprivileged have put forward their own ideas, including raising the gas tax, raising the income tax rate on Utah's wealthiest residents and upping the rate on taxes assessed on natural resources like oil, gas and coal, mined in the state.

A 45-day countdown begins Jan. 25 for the Legislature to solve the budget puzzle and ratify a balanced plan to keep the wheels of government moving in the coming year.

— Arthur Raymond