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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Here's how sure House leaders are they'll beat Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter on hiking Idaho's gas tax:

In the midst of a meeting between the two sides Friday, Otter paused to sign bills and field reporters' questions.

When asked if he was still bent on keeping lawmakers in town until they give him millions more for roads from a gas-tax hike, Otter said cautiously: "I don't want to get out ahead of everything that's being looked at."

Just minutes later, however, House Speaker Lawerence Denney, Majority Leader Mike Moyle and other House honchos released a statement that was a little more confident.

"It's time for the Legislature to wrap up its business and go home," they wrote. "So let's not make this a test of political wills."

For Idaho's chief executive, that's exactly what it is, and no less than his legacy is at stake.

Otter wants people to pay more roads-related taxes now, so their kids won't pay millions more to fix highways later.

For Idaho House Republicans like Moyle, easily the dominant figure of the 2009 session, it's more complicated: He doesn't trust the Idaho Transportation Department; federal stimulus millions are raining down, to the tune of some $200 million for roads; above everything, Moyle hates taxes, even when economy's booming.

Whether it's Otter or Moyle who wins won't just help determine the price of gas at Idaho service stations. It will raise significant questions about the state's political future: Will the first-term Otter ever be able to ask for any big initiative again?

And will the House feel any obligation to give it to him?

"I am no longer willing to support a gas tax increase," said Moyle, who earlier this session reluctantly backed Otter's push but now says six House votes against increase proposals, ranging from 2 cents to 7 cents more, from 25 cents per gallon now, have turned the tide.

"It's either, 'It's the economy, stupid. Or it's the stupid economy,' " Moyle told The Associated Press.

The Republican governor, whose riverside ranch is a mile or so from Moyle's farm west of Boise, concedes 35 years ago he might have been where Moyle is now. Back then, he was a 30-something freshman legislator in the Idaho House who once changed his vote from "No" to "Hell, no."

Years and position have changed his perspective, Otter told the AP. And he's heard plenty from construction-industry lobbyists, too, telling him more money on the highways will generate jobs and lift Idaho out of its economic morass.

"I have to look at this problem from 30,000 feet," Otter said. "I'm telling you, 20 percent of the roads in Idaho have a broken arm."

The session will be in its 106th day Monday, just 12 shy of the longest session in history in 2003. But so far, at least 21 of the 35 Idaho senators have sided with the governor.

"I don't want to be here," said Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden. "But I don't want to walk away from unfinished business."

Ditto Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell and Senate Transportation Committee chairman, who when asked if he'd consider voting against Otter just to end the session said, "I can't envision me overriding the governor."

In Idaho, where three-quarters of the Senate and House is Republican, raising taxes is never easy.

Back in 2003, then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne kept lawmakers in town 118 days to win over the House on a temporary sales tax hike.

That was to fill holes in a state budget riddled by a recession, albeit a milder one than the current downturn that's sent Idaho's unemployment to 7.1 percent, a 21-year high.

And in 1996, debate over a 4-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike sparked near-violence: Then-Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Evan Frasure, during a closed Republican caucus meeting, flew across a desk in rage at a lawmaker who had defected at the last minute. Frasure had to be restrained, multiple lawmakers who were in the room at the time told The Associated Press Friday; the bill passed by the narrowest of margins, 18-17.

What's different about the 2009 Legislature, and particularly the 2009 House?

For one, Rep. Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley and the House speaker who helped Kempthorne broker the temporary sales tax hike of 2003 and the ever-contentious $1 billion "Connecting Idaho" roads bonds of 2005, retired in 2006.

And that year's elections, when Boise Democrats made inroads in Idaho's most-populous city, they ousted centrist Republicans who might have been a moderating voice in House debate over the gas tax.

That same year, Lawrence Denney, a conservative from Midvale, beat out Nampa insurance agent Bill Deal, a pro-business Republican, for House speaker. Moyle, a fiery former hunting guide who raises mink for their pelts, became majority leader.

"This doesn't happen with Newcomb there," said Jasper LiCalzi, professor of political economy at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. "It's becomes more polarized: The districts are either really Democratic, or really conservative Republican. The moderates are gone."

LiCalzi points out the irony of Otter, an anti-tax libertarian since the 1970s, fighting House lawmakers who before the 2006 election were presumed to be his allies. And they're fighting over raising taxes, in a year when most House Democrats have voted against hikes, too.

"We're in bizzarro world," LiCalzi said. "Everything is backwards."

Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum and the House minority leader three years ago, says Otter is reaping the fruits of the House's conservative turn.

"The governor has a vision for the state," said Jaquet, who supports a gas tax hike. "Republican leaders in the House can't have a vision for the state, because they're committed to no taxes, no matter what."

Employees in the Capitol Annex's second-floor legislative information center, which fields calls and routes them to lawmakers, said Tuesday — the day of the House's overwhelming 55-15 rejection of a two-year, 6 cent per gallon gas tax proposal — was by far their busiest day of the session.

"Most of them are saying 'No, don't vote for it,' said Rep. Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell. "It's a very volatile issue. But I do have people — chambers of commerce, business people — who are saying we need to do something for roads. I'm trying to weigh all of that."

On Friday, Otter conceded to reporters there was "every possibility" lawmakers could override his vetoes of 33 budget bills as early as next week.

And in declining to answer whether he'll let lawmakers exit without giving him at least some of the $174 million in roads revenue he demanded at the session's January start, the governor looked a far less confident man than the one wielding the red veto stamp just a few days earlier.

"Hope springs eternal," is all Otter offered.