Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has now been in office just over 100 days — a time frame traditional for newspaper reporters to assess a new governor, mayor or president.

Trouble is, few government executives can put their stamp on a government in such a short time.

I remember that former Gov. Mike Leavitt used to set up time frames and then, in a typical manner for the ever-planning Leavitt, grade himself on how he was doing.

Leavitt had a 1,000-day plan in his, if I recall, third term.

And he would come in to the Deseret Morning News' editorial board every now and then to report how well he was doing on that 1,000 days.

I don't recall how he did, but I imagine he gave himself high grades.

It's good to set goals. But politicians should beware of what they promise, even in what they hope to accomplish.

Huntsman's main goal is to revitalize Utah's economy — and he can only scratch the surface of that in 100 days.

If strengthening the economy sounds familiar, it was one of Leavitt's main goals, too. And, in fact, after he became governor, Leavitt oversaw one of the great economic runs in the state's history. How much he personally had to do with that is debatable.

We saw record tax surpluses during the mid-to-late 1990s. Leavitt and the GOP-controlled Legislature cut the main state taxes several times. And still state revenues grew.

But other promises were not kept. For example, in running the first time, Leavitt said he wouldn't let state government grow faster than population and inflation. When the huge tax surpluses started rolling in, the Legislature and Leavitt spent more and more, much of it on public education in an effort to reduce class sizes (which worked), increase teacher pay (which also worked), and get the state off of the bottom of the per-pupil spending ranks (which did not work).

For several years I dogged Leavitt and his top aides, asking them again and again to justify the fact that state government WAS growing faster than inflation and population. And at one point the long-suffering Charlie Johnson, Leavitt's then-chief of staff, admitted that state government may be growing faster than Leavitt said it would (although Johnson wouldn't actually own up to that). But then Johnson said that over 12 years of a Leavitt administration, on average that wouldn't be the case.

Considering that Leavitt was still in his first four-year term, talking about a 12-year administration seemed a bit odd, I thought.

Anyway, Huntsman, a Republican like Leavitt, hasn't produced a yardstick to measure state government growth.

And in the 2005 Legislature, lawmakers spent around $600 million (a record) in one time tax surpluses and anticipated tax revenue growth for next year. Yes, government is more fun when you have cash.