Legislative leaders are looking to cut deep into the state's budget, slashing more than $400 million from the current year's programs -- nearly half of it from public education --and again urged Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to call a special session.

The budget blueprint adopted Tuesday by the Legislature's main budget committee would mean sweeping across-the-board cuts and an untold number of layoffs of state workers. But lawmakers on Tuesday sounded a tone of urgency.

House Speaker-elect Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said the governor's refusal to call a special session is painting lawmakers into a corner. Delaying action means the cuts will be more painful or lawmakers will have to raid the state's rainy day account "and hope you get out of here alive and hope some federal bailout comes along."

Clark said that every day that passes the state puts itself $2 million deeper in the hole, compounding the budget problems. The urgency to address the crisis offers "all the more reason why I would request the governor's office to reconsider their stoppage of a special session."

The frustration with Huntsman's refusal to convene a special session was apparent, as other legislators questioned whether the governor was required by the Utah Constitution to begin cutting costs more aggressively to avert a budget deficit. But the lawmakers' budget staff director told them the governor is not required to stop spending until the state runs out of money.

"Unless we do something, come April we run out of money," said Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, co-chairman of the budget committee. "We can't print money. We can't bail ourselves out."

Huntsman already has required state agencies to curb spending, demanding 1.5 percent reductions, while protecting public schools and using part of the $414 million Rainy Day Fund and pulling money out of road projects to make up the rest of the difference.

The Legislature wants to go much further, seeking five times as much from state agencies, including public education, and plans to make those cuts as soon as they can -- convening a series of budget meetings before the general legislative session begins Jan. 26 so cuts can be enacted early in the session.

Lawmakers then want to cut another $400 million from next year's budget -- a total of about $800 million, or 15 percent --which they hope would leave them some wiggle room to restore a portion of the reductions.

"This does not mean that this will be the final budget," said Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, the House budget chairman. "Let's pass a budget that we can go back and add to."

What the cost-cutting will mean in human terms remains to be seen, as departments are still trying to grasp the potential impact.

Huntsman's 1.5 percent cuts already have forced a tightening of Medicaid eligibility, reducing payments to county jails that house prison inmates and scaling back drug and sex offender treatment programs.

Under the Legislature's plan, public schools would have to find a way to cut $197 million by June 30, and find similar cuts in the following year -- a figure that would force immediate and tangible changes in school programs.

"That's a deep cut and it will mean there may be some changes in bus offerings immediately, there may be some changes in offerings of extracurricular activities immediately. It means some large cuts in other areas," said state superintendent Patti Harrington. "I would hope the public would be ready for some different approaches to handling the rest of the educational year."

But Harrington said a large portion of the education budget goes to personnel. "When you talk about a cut of 10 or 15 percent, there aren't many places to go before you start looking at issues that impact the classroom," she said.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, chairman of the education budget committee, said his goal is to try to protect education through the end of the school year and then give local districts flexibility to make cuts.

"Without a doubt, these are dire economic times and we're expecting that even public education will have to face some reductions," he said.

House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City, questioned if budget leaders were "creating a panic" with the potential of 15 percent cuts, if that's not what is actually needed.