To date, the sparring has concerned whether or how to return to taxpayers part of an anticipated surplus in the state budget.

Unless, of course, the anticipated surplus turns out to be illusory.

The Bush administration says the additional money for the Pentagon can be found in the anticipated federal surplus next year.

The new budget includes an anticipated surplus next year of $515 million.

An accelerated tax cut and a sharper economic slowdown would significantly reduce the administration's anticipated surpluses.

Those cuts would not require any new taxes for now, since they would come out of an anticipated surplus in the state budget.

Caution is warranted before committing the anticipated surpluses to permanent changes on either the revenue or spending side.

But the Republican tax cut plan would take $4.5 billion out of next year's anticipated surplus.

The proposal put before us early in the present legislature was based on what I would call an apocalyptic vision of anticipated surpluses.

The three sides must also grapple with how to use an anticipated surplus in the current budget.