From Deseret News archives:
It's a wrap on the Hill
Often-contentious session comes to an amicable end
The 2004 Legislature was light on diplomacy and laden with politics: gay marriage, abortion, tuition tax credits, all of which combined for some sharp words and musings over whether it all was worth their $120-a-day pay.
But by Wednesday, during frequent breaks in voting, debating and caucusing, legislators put their differences aside and were smiling and joking.
At one point House Majority Leader Greg Curtis, who lost his temper during a recent committee meeting, tearing up a chart on the wall, had his arm around Democratic Rep. Ty McCartney, one of the House's more liberal members, as they laughed together.
"There is peace in the valley," Curtis said Wednesday night.
It wasn't always so the past 45 days, which saw a few tears and "retribution" toward moderate Republicans, who voted with Democrats to kill tuition tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools.
GOP Gov. Olene Walker — overseeing what may be her only session as Utah's chief executive — gave legislators high marks. "They did very well with the budget considering the resources they had. There wasn't money for new, innovative programs."
Walker said she only has seven bills on her desk for consideration and will take her allotted 20 days to consider any that deserve her veto. "I won't veto just to use a veto; there must be a good reason. Right now, it's impossible to tell how many" she may strike down.
Political messages
No sooner had legislators filed out of the Capitol than almost all were looking ahead to their own political campaigns. Within two weeks, those holding all 75 House seats and 15 of 29 Senate seats must file for re-election or retire.
Indeed, old saws say the 2004 Legislature may have been the most political in 20 years, with two members running for governor, both House Speaker Marty Stephens and Senate President Al Mansell stepping down from their top-job posts — and so jockeying to see who will succeed them — and resolutions arguing over getting the United States out of the United Nations and praising President Bush's war efforts.
There were "messages" being sent far and wide.
Democrats charged that the conservative agenda was tarnishing Utah's reputation and harming economic development efforts. While Republicans said it was just more political spinning by the minority party.
"This has been a positive session," insisted Mansell. "Those who have said it was a message session missed a big part of it."
