Since the Constitution also says the governor must make a State of the State address — and since Tuesday's address won't legally meet that requirement because the Legislature won't be "in session" — Huntsman will have to send a copy of his speech to the House and Senate to be enrolled in the official legislative journals.

Huntsman chief of staff Jason Chaffetz said Tuesday that the governor has decided to pick up the whole cost of the trip and related State of the State activities. Originally, Huntsman said he'd pay half the cost of busing the Legislature to Fillmore, about $5,000.

"We're estimating it will cost between $10,000 and $20,000 now," Chaffetz said. The cash will come from Huntsman's personal political action committee. The higher costs come because Huntsman decided to feed guests and lawmakers twice, once in a pre-speech dinner outside of the Old Territorial Statehouse in Fillmore and again with 100 orders of take-out hamburgers, fries and soft drinks from Larry's Drive-In as lawmakers boarded buses for the trip back to Salt Lake City.

Chaffetz said he's sorry if some lawmakers are grumpy about the trip. "We don't want grumpy legislators — and we certainly understand if some can't make it for family or legislative work reasons."

Huntsman said several weeks ago when he announced he wouldn't be giving the speech in the temporary House Chambers (too crowded and unaccommodating) that he might make his State of the State address outside of Salt Lake City from now on — at least until the Capitol renovation is finished in 2008.

He might want to think again.

Said Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper: "It's a honeymoon period (for the new governor) and a historical event, so it's OK if he wants to drive us down to Fillmore this year. But next year, it would be a problem."

---

Contributing: Josh Loftin.

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com