LITTLE ROCK -- An advisory opinion by the state's top lawyer will not change Gov. Mike Huckabee's decision to use tobacco settlement money to restore certain Medicaid cuts.

Huckabee said Thursday he will go forward with the plan no matter what Attorney General Mark Pryor may say in answer to a question posed by state Sen. Jim Argue.

Argue, D-Little Rock, has asked for an opinion on whether Huckabee can divert the money without an appropriation by the Legislature.

"We don't think there is a question about the legality of the plan," Huckabee told reporters at the state Capitol.

Huckabee declined Thursday to release information about a meeting he held Wednesday at the Capitol with key members of a coalition behind the tobacco settlement spending plan, including Dr. Joe Thompson, a pediatrician.

Last week Thompson expressed concerns about diverting money to restore Medicaid cuts.

Thompson declined to comment Thursday about the meeting with Huckabee, but said he is pleased that two programs from the tobacco spending plan slated for this fiscal year are up and running. They are expanded coverage to pregnant women and increased reimbursement to rural hospitals.

Huckabee announced January 16 that $2. 9 million would be taken from the portion of the tobacco settlement proceeds that is targeted for Medicaid expansion. The money would preserve spending in the "medically needy" category of the Medicaid budget during the last three months of the fiscal year -- April, May and June.

The medically needy typically are middle-income people who spend themselves to below the poverty level during a three-month period because of catastrophic medical conditions, such as a heart transplant or injuries in a car wreck.

Voters in 2000 approved a plan to spend the settlement money. Changes to an initiated act require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

State officials say that since the medically needy category was going to be eliminated, using the tobacco money for that purpose qualifies as an expansion.

"We don't want to eliminate the services for the medically needy category," Huckabee said. "On the mere basis of an attorney's opinion should we quit offering services to the medically needy of 30,000 Arkansas citizens? I don't think so."

Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Beebe, D-Searcy, and House Speaker Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, said they have no problem with asking Pryor for guidance on a legal question. Most lawmakers want to see the Medicaid cuts restored, but want to make sure it is not open to a legal challenge.

Huckabee also said there will be no special legislative session to address state budget shortfalls because "there is really no clear consensus in the Legislature right now."

Beebe and Broadway have said they have the votes to pass a funding plan. Huckabee said Beebe "has always been trustworthy," but he is unconvinced of agreement in the House.

Broadway said Thursday he believes the House can get consensus on a plan.

"I think I could get 67 based on the members I've talked to," he said.

Huckabee has said he is more reluctant to call a special session in light of a failed special session in 2000 to consider a tobacco spending plan. The plan was killed in a House committee in which Broadway cast the deciding vote.