Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Thursday issued a 15-item "to do" list for legislators to tackle beginning Tuesday. At the top: legislation limiting Utah's implementation of federal No Child Left Behind education requirements.

Lawmakers also will consider bonding for the state's $4.5 million share of a veterans nursing home in Ogden, starting a $1.4 million drug treatment program for convicts and setting aside $4 million for expansion of the Salt Palace Convention Center. Huntsman wants lawmakers to consider giving his Cabinet members, the lieutenant governor, state auditor and treasurer a 4.5 percent pay raise. Legislators also will do cleanup, striking three errant words out of a tourism bill, authorizing funding already appropriated for nonprofit legal assistance and jail expansions, and re-adopting legislation requiring new computerized voting machines to produce a paper record - the wrong version of that bill was sent to Huntsman for his signature.

Noting the length of the list, Huntsman legislative liaison Mike Mower calls the April 19 meeting an "extra-special session." The governor's staff rejected between 15 and 25 requests. One notable omission: a resolution to allow Envirocare to expand its radioactive waste landfill.

"It's more than we expected," Huntsman Chief of Staff Jason Chaffetz said of the items on list. "We have an aggressive agenda. But it's the right thing to do. There were several bills where the clock just ran out."

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, believes the agenda for the session is one lawmakers can handle over two days.

"It's a little broader than I think it should be," Curtis said. "But there's nothing that's overly controversial."

Still, the No Child Left Behind legislation, Salt Palace expansion plan and Transportation Investment Act are virtually guaranteed to spark debate.

Huntsman Education Deputy Tim Bridgewater has been negotiating with U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to get flexibility under No Child Left Behind. While Bridgewater and Chaffetz insist they have made progress - "They have come miles from where they were before," Chaffetz said - lawmakers are less convinced.

The No Child Left Behind law gives state school officials authority to buck provisions deemed to conflict with state education priorities.

Animosity for Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson still colors lawmakers' views of the Salt Palace funding compromise, hammered out last week by state, county and city leaders. Under the deal, the state pays $4 million and repeals legislation that diverts almost $20 million from city coffers over 10 years to the convention center. Instead, the city would pay $8 million.

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Tribune reporters Thomas Burr, Ronnie Lynn and Heather May contributed to this story.