How to pay for it, that's the rub.

, or the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative, passed Senate muster 28-0 with one abstention last week, but now, with 10 days left in the session, the bill remains before the House Business and Labor Committee. Curtis, R-Sandy, and Valentine, R-Orem, say differences over USTAR's bonding provision are to blame.

At the core of Sandy Republican Sen. Al Mansell's bill is the issuance of up to $111 million in general obligation bonds. Those funds are earmarked for a new Bio Innovations Research Institute at Utah State University and a Neuroscience and Biomedical Technology Research Building at the University of Utah.

"That is a sticking point," Curtis told Wednesday's annual Utah Information Technology Association's annual breakfast with legislative leadership. "A lot of my colleagues are squeamish about authorizing bonds at a time of unprecedented revenues."

Valentine seeks a clearer understanding of how USTAR would pay off the bonds. "We do not want to build a field of dreams, hoping that if we build it they [revenues] will come," he told the downtown Salt Lake City Little America crowd.

Curtis says new revenue projections show lawmakers with $640 million in new, ongoing money have stirred debate over Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s call for both "flat tax" reform and elimination of the sales tax on food. Also competing for dollars are proposals to boost education funding, hike road repair budgets or return some of the surplus through income taxes cuts.

"We cannot lose track of the long term," Valentine warned. "The decisions we make [with the surplus] now we will have to live with [for] decades."

Nonetheless, both legislative leaders underscored their support for the concept of USTAR - stopping the out-migration of the state's best minds by funding Utah campuses' efforts to partner with businesses.

An appointed USTAR board would oversee funding to encourage inventions that could be developed by the private sector, and in turn USTAR would get a cut of profits - money it could then re-invest in technological innovation and growth.

bmims@sltrib.com