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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Who's the boss in the 2009 Idaho Legislature? Midway through the session's 13th week, the House of Representatives is clearly winning the day, using its conservative clout to kill measures favored by the Senate and Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter.

On Wednesday morning, the House sent its first strong message of the day to the Senate: A 51-18 vote killed a plan to dole out $45 million from the federal stimulus. The Republican House majority objected to Senate-backed provisions directing that some of the money go to minimize state agency layoffs, forcing a pact later in the day where senators gave ground.

Just after noon, representatives made themselves heard again, this time with Otter.

They voted 42-28 to scuttle two years of work the Republican governor has invested in reforming Idaho's 62-year-old liquor license quotas. The governor believes the current system is cramping the state's economic growth by stymieing ambitious restaurateurs who can't get licenses; the House decided he was trying to expand drinking and turned him down.

Emboldened by his chamber's success in setting the tone so far, House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, later offered an explicit warning to the Senate not to add a gas-tax hike to a measure seeking to repeal an ethanol tax exemption. The House has passed it, but the Senate is considering changes.

"They're walking a very thin line," Moyle told The Associated Press. "The ethanol bill is a good bill. They could end up with nothing."

Repealing the ethanol tax exemption would add some $18 million to Idaho's coffers.

The Senate has held off voting on any proposed amendments.

"We're still working on a solution for transportation," said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls. "I don't currently anticipate going into the (amending) order" on Thursday.

Senate and House leaders including Dean Cameron, Senate Finance Committee chairman, did reach some common ground late Wednesday afternoon on resolving how to divvy up the $45 million from the federal stimulus.

Still, Cameron, R-Rupert, was forced to abandon using $7.4 million from the total to reduce personnel cost cuts to just 3 percent, something he said was the best way to protect public safety and preserve jobs.

The House demanded — and received — a 5 percent personnel cost cut instead, with the caveat that Otter can use his discretion to use some of Idaho's budget reserves to help prevent layoffs at agencies like the Idaho State Police and state prison guards, if it comes to that.

House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, declined to characterize the agreement as a victory, though his chamber got essentially everything it wanted.

"I don't think anybody won," he said. "Everybody had to give a little ground."

Jon Hanian, Otter's spokesman, said that's what the governor has been giving up all year.

He has dropped his original $174 million, five-year plan to raise more money for road and bridge maintenance and is now asking for just "something."

So far, however, representatives have said "something" is still too much. On March 19, they voted 43-27 to kill a proposed three-year, 7-cent-per-gallon increase in the state gas tax, from 25 cents now. Last Thursday, a 2-cent-per-gallon increase plan — "piddly," one lawmaker called it — won over just five new supporters, dying 37-32.

Majority GOP and minority Democratic lawmakers insist a recession isn't the time to raise taxes. Idaho's unemployment is at 7.1 percent, the highest level in more than two decades

Still, Hanian said Otter won't let the House off the hook like he did a year ago, when he dismissed its proposal for $68.5 million in new roads dollars as too puny to fight over.

"It's $30,000 bucks a day for them to stay in session. We're mindful that the financial clock is ticking," Hanian said. "But there are still some substantial things to iron out."

Moyle, who insists the House isn't trying to push the Senate or Otter around, points out he wasn't enthusiastic about the gas tax hikes but still joined the House leadership team in backing them, out of deference to the governor.

"It wasn't like we said 'Hell no!' We went through the process," Moyle said. "We were trying to find a reasonable consensus everybody could agree on. We didn't find it."

On Thursday, the Legislature hits its 95th day, second-longest in history. Only the 118-day session of 2003 was longer.