There are no plans to look at extending health-care benefits to same-sex partners of state government workers, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Thursday, warning legal hurdles lie ahead for a Salt Lake City initiative.

But Huntsman said he would not "launch any legal effort of my own" against Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's recent executive order extending benefits to gay and unmarried heterosexual couples and their children

"It's a local government decision, based on what he, as the duly elected mayor, wants to do," the governor said during his monthly news conference on KUED Channel 7. He said he would have to look at any legislation banning the benefits before taking a position.

Huntsman made it clear, though, that he won't consider offering any similar benefits to state workers.

"It really comes down to cost, and what I want to get right are the costs that are now on the table associated with benefits that we're making available to all of our employees," Huntsman said. "We're still working hard on getting that dimension right."

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, said Huntsman doesn't understand the issue.

Last fall, Utah voters approved Amendment 3, a state constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and any other "substantially similar" relationship. A state law passed earlier does essentially the same.

Buttars said the benefits clearly violate both Amendment 3 and the similar law he sponsored. He suggested that Anderson is working with gays in other states to "see if there's any way to compromise the legislation.

"Rocky doesn't have a right to extend those benefits," Buttars said. "He is creating domestic partners. He's used that term. It says in our legislation you can't do that."

Buttars said he'd work with Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Sandy, on legislation that would put a stop to the benefits. But the senator said he doesn't believe a new law is needed, at least for now.

That's because the city's health insurance company, Public Employees Benefits Program, has said it won't act on the Salt Lake City mayor's plan until it has a court order ruling the benefits are legal.

Bill Duncan, director of the Provo-based Marriage Law Foundation that provides legal resources to defend and protect marriage, disagreed with Buttars on his interpretation of Amendment 3.

Duncan said the benefits don't counter Amendment 3, which he said he supported, because "giving health insurance benefits just doesn't reach that level of creating an equivalence of marriage."

Gay rights activists saw the governor's lack of a position on potential legislation as a positive sign.

"What that says to me is the governor is willing to keep an open mind on the issue," said Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, who led last fall's failed Don't Amend campaign against Amendment 3.

McCoy pointed to the governor's support of a failed provision last fall that would have granted limited benefits to those who can't legally marry.

Jane Marquardt, board chairwoman of Equality Utah, said, "I would hope that after he studied the issue further he would realize it would enhance economic benefits."

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