HELENA (LEE) — Tight-lipped Republican legislative leaders refused Wednesday to tell their Democratic counterparts whether they intend to make a major change in how the state budget is handled by carving the huge appropriations bill into eight smaller measures.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders already have asked legislative staffers to begin drafting the boilerplate language for some of these separate bills — but not the specific spending recommendations because they aren’t ready yet. They insisted, however, they have not decided yet whether to pursue the multiple budget bills strategy, but want to be ready in case they do.

For the past 30 years, the Legislature has used a single appropriations bill combining the budgets for all state agencies. Before that, however, the Legislature used multiple bills appropriating money to different agencies.

In the coming weeks, the dispute over the budget bill or multiple bills could ignite a partisan battle over the level of future state spending, pitting the Republican-led House against the Democratic-controlled Senate and Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Republicans have criticized Schweitzer’s proposed spending increases as excessive.

For the second straight day, House Minority Whip Art Noonan, D-Butte, questioned House Majority Leader Michael Lange, R-Billings, on the House floor about the GOP’s rumored multibill strategy.

“We see this as an extreme kind of choice here,” Noonan said, trying to pin down Lange on the GOP’s strategy.

“I’m not telling what my plans are,” Lange replied. “We’re managing the House on this side of the aisle. We’ll come to those decisions in due course. Nice try.”

Noonan said breaking the appropriations bill into eight parts “would be a rather significant and an unusual thing to happen.” It would open the possibility that Republicans might hold one spending bill “hostage” to extract something from Democrats the GOP wanted, he said later.

The Democratic leader also raised some legal questions about going from one to eight budget bills and said afterward it would be invitation for a lawsuit.

Lange, however, dismissed these legal concerns, saying he wouldn’t do anything unconstitutional or illegal.

“I think there’s a whole lot of worrying about nothing,” Lange told Noonan.

Noonan said he was simply trying to get an idea of what the House Republicans are planning.

Lange said the House, where the budget bill must begin, “tends to take a back seat to the Senate” in the appropriations process in the past because the Senate gets the last crack at the bill and has “the liberty to slide money all over the place.”

“We want the House to weigh in on an equal level with the Senate,” Lange said.

He pledged to keep House Democrats posted on what the Republicans plans are and include them in on the discussions. But, as Lange said in a later interview, “We’re not going to ask their permission.”

“It’s completely our call,” he said.

In the Senate, Democratic Majority Leader Carol Williams of Missoula also questioned Republican Minority Leader Corey Stapleton about the Republicans’ plans for the budget bill — or bills.

Stapleton said Republicans would like to limit the increase in the state budget to 45 percent a year, and are looking for the best way to accomplish that goal.

In an interview later, Williams said she doesn’t see how breaking HB2 into several bills would be very efficient or help the process.

“They said they wanted some control (over the budget),” she said of Republicans. “They’ve got the bill in the House, they’ve got the committees that are controlling House Bill 2 right now. I’m still a little puzzled about how that argument works.”