The Executive Appropriations Committee's base budget, which is four-fifths the size of Huntsman's, is meant to serve as a spending framework if the Legislature should fail to pass a final budget. It also gave a first glimpse of clashes ahead in arriving at a plan for the state.

Already a $10 million difference in defining the spending caps that will kick in this year emerged between Huntsman's proposal and the basic budget.

Huntsman and lawmakers' blueprints, however, share the most important revenue numbers, including Utah's astounding $1.6 billion surplus.

The Legislature's base budget includes $2.1 billion for education, $700 million for higher education, $600 million for health and human services and $500 million for criminal justice and executive offices.

Though he voted to approve the base budget, Senate President John Valentine warned sthat the Senate Republican Caucus is considering abandoning the base-budget process, which carries forward spending from the year before.

Many GOP senators would like to scrutinize all expenditures, he said. They plan to meet on the issue before the Jan. 15 opening of the legislative session.

"Some senators say we give directors a pass - we ought to be diving into those budgets looking for areas we should be reallocating or cutting," explained Sen. Lyle Hillyard, budget committee chairman.

Though the House GOP caucus has called for tripling the governor's recommended tax cut to $300 million, along with an equal amount for new education spending, Republican senators who met Wednesday did not issue spending numbers.