Walker backs end to firing squads

In her first press conference of the 2004 Legislature, Gov. Olene Walker said Friday that she favors doing away with the firing squad in Utah death penalty executions.

"We should do the most humane thing" in putting murderers to death, said Walker. Several bills are proposed that would eliminate the firing squad, leaving lethal injection the only method of execution.

On other points:

• Walker questioned whether the repeal of the cable and satellite TV sales tax, which passed the House overwhelmingly earlier this week, will ultimately be passed by the Senate. "I imagine at the end of the session, when legislators are looking for revenue, they will be sweeping the corners, as I did" in putting together her $8 billion budget recommendation.

Sen. Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, echoed Walker's suspicion at a Senate GOP leadership news conference Friday. He joked that House members may have so eagerly passed it because they knew the Senate would not pass it, and that next year the Senate would get to pass it over to the House and let them stop it.

"We're short of funds and we need cash," he said. "If we take it out of the budget, there will be a lot of difficulties."

• Walker has noticed that politics are playing a role this year. "But that's natural, in a election year." She gave credit to legislative leaders for trying to carefully weigh parental rights issues, brought on by the Parker Jensen state custody issue of last summer.

• While some Republicans say they won't take more sales tax monies out of the Centennial Highway Fund because the fund could be insolvent in 2007, Walker said those problems can be solved then.

"We're ninth in the nation" in the high sales tax rates, she said. And those monies are needed for non-transportation programs, like education. The per-gallon state gasoline tax periodically needs to be raised because of inflation, "or we'll end up fourth or fifth in sales tax," she said.

During the Senate GOP leadership question-and-answer session, which followed Walker's conference, leaders cautiously applauded the proposals made during her Thursday night's State of the State speech. The problem with most of the proposals, however, is money.

"She had a very positive agenda, and one which the Senate endorses," Senate President Al Mansell, R-Sandy, said. "But we will have some funding difficulties accomplishing her goals."