A newly established North Dakota legislative committee intends to study the state's budget trends and spending growth, the panel's chairman says.

A Democratic state senator said Friday that the committee's abrupt formation signaled a rift between majority Republican lawmakers and GOP Gov. John Hoeven, who drafts spending recommendations for the Legislature. A spokesman for Hoeven said the governor was not bothered by the development.

Rep. Al Carlson, R-Fargo, the chairman of the Legislative Council, formed the Budget and Finance Committee last week. The council oversees legislative business between sessions, and its chairman has broad authority to direct interim studies.

The committee has 10 Republicans and three Democrats, and includes the House and Senate's GOP majority leaders, Rick Berg, of Fargo, and Bob Stenehjem, of Bismarck. Carlson will serve as its chairman.

Carlson said the panel is likely to meet before or after meetings of the Legislative Council's Budget Section, a much larger interim committee. It has 45 members, including legislative leaders of both parties and members of the House and Senate appropriations committees.

The Budget and Finance Committee will review state tax collection estimates and develop preliminary budget benchmarks for the 2009-11 state budget period, Carlson said.

"Our intent here … is not to go through agency by agency and line by line," Carlson said. "But it's to look at trends and to look at what we can sustain, and to develop what we think would be a reasonable rate of growth for government in the next biennium."

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, said the committee's formation showed Republican lawmakers do not trust Hoeven on budget matters.

"There really isn't clear leadership from the governor's office," Mathern said. "There is a parallel system being established here, to determine the budget of North Dakota."

Mathern is exploring a bid for the Democratic endorsement to run for governor next year. He said there was nothing wrong with legislative attempts to monitor the state budget, but said Carlson's approach should have been approved beforehand by the Legislature itself.

"To do this does require additional resources," Mathern said. "It requires a different system of governing in the interim."

Don Canton, a spokesman for Hoeven, said the governor would review the committee's work.

"People understand that constitutionally, the governor drafts a budget, and that's what we'll do," Canton said. "Interim committees look at all sorts of things. We'll see what they come up with."