The largely symbolic addresses House Speaker Greg Curtis and Senate President John Valentine gave on the first day of the 2006 Legislature hinted at a looming conflict between the two chambers - particularly on the issue of how to cut taxes.

Conservative Utah lawmakers have watched a $1 billion state surplus accumulate, including extra revenues collected last year and projections for next year. With many of them facing re-election and leery of appearing to let government grow, legislators are debating how to give some of the money back to Utah taxpayers.

As the six-week legislative session opened on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, lawmakers split their time between budget previews, an update of the state's judicial branch and commemorations of the holiday.

Valentine urged his colleagues to remain disciplined and responsible with the state's windfall, keeping in mind recent bad years. Curtis cautioned House members not to try to carve out funding for their pet projects in this banner revenue year. Both conservative Republicans support a tax cut. But differences in the two speeches reveal an underlying tension.

The Senate President warned lawmakers that the state's record-breaking revenue surplus will demand even more statesmanship than the preceding economic downturn. Whatever the Legislature does in this time of plenty will affect generations to come more than did past budget cuts, he said.

"Prosperity and adversity are cyclical, they come and go. They require vision and leadership," Valentine said.

"Prosperity can be a greater challenge - a greater adversity - than when we had bad times," he added. "Prosperity requires discipline, foresight and vision. In bad times we knew what to do - cut the budget."

Curtis, on the other hand, first warned representatives not to take what happens to their bills too personally. Then he argued that the best way to handle taxpayer money is leave it in their pockets.

"We need to be sure that we come up with old ways to spend less. And one of the best old ways to spend less is to take less. In fact, the best way to give something is not to take it in the first place," the speaker said. He compared a reckless, free-spending Legislature to a taxpayer-financed bald eagle plunging into a "burning ring of fire."

"If we are going to spend, let's know where we are going and why. If we are going to solve a problem, let's agree that more spending is never all of the answer, and in many cases, it could make matters worse."

Curtis and other House Republican leaders have promoted the idea of a $230 million tax cut, which includes cutting the state's sales tax on food and raising other taxes to make up some of the difference.

Valentine and other senators have suggested simply cutting the tax on food. Privately, senators say they are more in line with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and his proposed $60 million tax cut than House Republicans and their plan for a much deeper cut.

Later in the day, House members debated the merits of adopting base budgets on the 10th day of the 45-day legislative session. Last year, lawmakers agreed to adopt simple budgets early, then add on other projects as the session progressed to avoid a deadline-induced fiscal crisis in the last week. Sponsor Ron Bigelow, a West Valley City Republican, argues the new budgeting schedule will allow greater transparency in the way tax dollars are spent.

"This will increase public scrutiny of what we do," Bigelow said. "These bills will be available for review for a much longer time."

In the lone Capitol Hill acknowledgement of the holiday, Salt Lake County Judge Shauna Graves-Robinson challenged senators to keep King's civil rights dream alive by providing for "the least of those among us."

"What can you do to ensure the dream Doctor King had for all people is realized and does not die?" asked Graves-Robinson, the state's only black female judge and a graduate of West High School in Salt Lake City.

Lawmakers must ask themselves, ''How will the decisions I make today affect the poor, the disenfranchised and our youth?'' she said. ''Then the dream won't die because you will have kept it alive.''