A bipartisan quartet of Iowa legislators said Tuesday there won't be much appetite for raising taxes in the coming session.

The legislators took part in an hour-long forum at the Figge Art Museum, presented by IowaPolitics.com. The forum will be shown later on Mediacom cable.

The state's budget will clearly be a top priority for the Legislature when it convenes in January, and much of the discussion at the Figge centered on it.

Just last week, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said the state faces a $1 billion budget gap for 2011.

"We're in for, I think, a rough session," said state Sen. Joe Bolkcom, an Iowa City Democrat and an assistant Senate majority leader.

Republicans on the panel, which included state Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck, R-Dixon, and Rep. Steve Lukan, an assistant minority leader from New Vienna, said Democrats had spent too much money the past two years and ignored warnings of a fiscal crunch.

Lukan noted Republicans proposed cuts last year of more than $300 million. "These are ideas that are going to be back again," Lukan said.

Many of the cuts centered on seeking pay reductions and health insurance contributions from state employees.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the panel said they would work to protect education and health care while looking at consolidations.

Rep. Steve Jacoby, a Coralville Democrat, suggested merging the state's economic development, work force development and cultural affairs agencies. Jacoby is an assistant House leader.

When the talk came to increasing taxes, there was a bipartisan consensus there won't be an increase. Some state union leaders have pushed this.

Next year, lawmakers are up for re-election, and Culver already has said he doesn't support a tax increase.

Bolkcom warned, however, that there will be a day of reckoning, particularly with the state's backlogged infrastructure needs.

Hamerlinck said the state needs to grow revenue by attracting businesses rather than rely on tax increases.

Hamerlinck also said he also wants to find a way next session to help small school districts that are seeing cuts as a result of Gov. Chet Culver's across-the-board reductions.

Democrats say districts can dip into reserves or cut their own budgets to make up the money. But Hamerlinck said some districts facing the governor's cuts have told him they face no alternative other than to raise property taxes.

Wal-Mart and Mediacom sponsored the event, and the Iowa Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce was a partner.