HELENA -- The special legislative session is highly unlikely to finish its work today, as Gov. Brian Schweitzer had called for, but legislative leaders were hopeful that lawmakers could wrap it up Monday.

The House Appropriations Committee was working late into the night Friday on a host of amendments to the major budget bill. It is expected to be debated Monday in the House.

Meanwhile, while the House Taxation Committee is poised to begin amending and voting on the major tax cut bill this morning.

A major school funding bill has passed both houses and is on its way to Schweitzer's desk.

Schweitzer suggested the special legislative session was taking longer than necessary.

"It looks to me like they're doing two and a half days of work in 10 days," Schweitzer said.

Legislative leaders were making no apologies for likely having to extend the session past three working days to Monday. The special session, which concluded its second day Friday, costs taxpayers $38,000 per day, plus $65,000 in one-time start-up costs.

"There's a lot going on and some very complex issues," said Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena. "The Senate has heard every bill it has. It's moving."

He reeled off the other bills, such as energy and long-range building, that are making their way through the legislative process. Cooney said the special session, which began Thursday, "is slow-paced only if you're not serving on any of these committees."

During a late Senate session, Senate Majority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula, was asked about a likely adjournment.

"I'm only making a guess and I hope I'm wrong that we will be here past (Saturday) night," Williams said.

House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, predicted the session would adjourn on Monday.

"I don't think they'll be any hiccups along the way," he said.

Sales said the legislative staff would have had to work through Friday night to get the much-amended House Bill 2, the major budget bill, into any form so it could be read and voted on by representatives today. He said some House Democrats wanted to have the Republican-led House vote on it quickly and leave it up to the Democrat-controlled Senate to fix the bill to their liking.

"I'm not going there," Sales said. "I want both Democrats and Republicans to look at the bill and vote and make amendments."

"We've had enough of these deviations with small groups of people trying to make decisions," Sales added, referring to the dozen or so House Republicans that agreed to a deal with key Schweitzer administration aides last weekend. "I'm not going there. We're coming back."

Sales said he thinks the special session will do "tremendous work" to finish dealing with these complex issues in four days, but hastened to add: "I'm not speaking to the quality. I'm speaking to the quantity."

Senate Minority Leader Corey Stapleton, R-Billings, dismissed Schweitzer's notion of a three-day session as an artificial deadline.

"Nobody in the Legislature said that," he said. "From Day One, just do the math."

He said Schweitzer's calling the session on such short notice "was a breach of trust for the legislative staff." Schweitzer issued his call Monday and summoned lawmakers to Helena on Thursday, far shorter than most governor's special session calls.

House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls, said the extensive amendments to the budget bill mean it won't be ready for floor debate until Monday. He expects it to be debated on Monday morning, when people are fresh and back from the weekend.