''You can anticipate us being a bit more contrary because we weren't involved in the decisions that were made,'' Saunders said.

The session serves as a trial by fire for the Legislature's newly installed leaders, Sansom and Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach -- two men in sharply different political orbits.

Atwater, a 50-year-old bank executive, has empan- eled a special committee to study the Florida economy and tax system and has advocated the need for long-range solutions.

Sansom, 46, has stayed out of sight since taking over, shadowed by controversy over his role in steering millions of dollars in public money to a local college that rewarded him with a $110,000 job.

As Sansom faces a possible ethics investigation, more than a dozen newspaper editorial boards have called on him to resign the college job or forfeit the speakership.

GOVERNOR'S ROLE

The bleak condition of Florida's finances also strains the unwavering optimism of Gov. Crist as he begins the second half of his term.

Crist wants lawmakers to blunt the impact of the cuts by raiding savings accounts and trust funds and by borrowing in the hope that the economy will improve, even though the state's revenue experts say an uptick is unlikely before 2010.

Crist's proposal calls for making permanent a 4 percent cut in state agencies' budgets, at a savings of $562 million. The Legislature, though, might increase the agency cuts to nearly $1 billion, but it's unclear what else would be cut.

To avoid those deeper cuts, Crist's plan calls for heavy borrowing plus raiding savings. Specifically, Crist recommends spending $320 million in surplus cash; bonding about $300 million for prison building; and borrowing $600 million and $290 million, respectively, from a healthcare fund and a budget stabilization fund.

All of those maneuvers still wouldn't spare K-12 public schools from a $370 million hit. The education budget accounts for about half of the state's budget supported by general taxes, the source of the deficit.

Crist is also banking on a jolt of aid from President-elect Barack Obama, but many Republicans in Congress oppose Obama's plan to distribute federal aid to states.

Moreover, Crist's brand of patchwork budgeting concerns key senators, who say the governor's approach to paying for recurring year-to-year services with one-time savings is unwise and an example of his short-term vision.

''I believe it is imperative that we plan for the future by reducing the state's recurring spending to ensure that we are not back at the table with the same problem in the spring,'' said Sen. JD Alexander, a Winter Haven Republican and the Senate's chief budget writer.

The gathering in the Capitol that starts Monday is the third special session in the past year and a half, at an estimated cost of up to $40,000 a day, although lawmakers have not updated that estimate in several years.

BAD NEWS AGAIN

Saunders, the ranking Democrat on the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, has been through budget-cutting sessions before: in the early 1990s, when Florida was in the throes of another recession and his party was in control.

Noting the bad-news element of legislators slashing services, Saunders said: ``There's nothing good that can happen. You want to get it over with as quickly as possible and get out of town.''

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