Huntsman honeymoon may be over

So far, though, House leadership isn't ready to budge from the GOP caucus position taken last December. House Majority Whip Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, went so far as to say that without the $85 million for roads, taxes will go up.

"The House doesn't want a tax increase. We think the people of Utah don't want a tax increase. Right now, the governor has a budget that pushes us into a tax increase," Urquhart said. "If you don't handle transportation needs this year, then you're going to have to raise taxes in the future."

Just what the House would cut from Huntsman's proposed $8.6 billion budget to pay for roads is not clear. House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Salt Lake, said lawmakers were looking for efficiencies, suggesting as an example that two new district judge positions could wait.

"Let's fund salary increases," Curtis said. "We believe we can fund a salary increase of 2.5 percent that the governor has said and we believe we can fund the benefits . . . and still do the $85 million."

Urquhart pointed out that Huntsman himself had said during the campaign that about 1 percent of the state budget could be cut. "That's what you do in a budget process is you hunt for efficiencies. You hunt for waste," he said. "Where will we find it? Nooks and crannies."

House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, said House Republicans have good reasons why they want to put $85 million of ongoing, general fund tax revenue into roads and they weren't going to be easily turned around.

Alexander said a transportation task force recommended that next year an additional $90 million go to roads, plus another $90 million the following year. "After that the task force said we'd probably have to raise taxes for roads," he said.

The money wouldn't go to the state's Centennial Highway Fund, which was used to rebuild I-15 in Salt Lake County and still has hundreds of millions of dollars of work still to be completed.

Instead, the new cash would go for road construction beyond those commitments. A number of the projects are in Utah County, which is seeing freeway gridlock at rush hour.

And Huntsman and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a former Utah County commissioner, promised during the 2004 gubernatorial campaign that transportation — and Utah County — would get major consideration in a Huntsman administration.

"We can't wait one more year to put extra money into roads," Alexander said. "The governor talks about economic development, but we have to have a good transportation system to have a good economy," Alexander said.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, who spoke with both Curtis and the governor Friday about the issue, said he didn't sense "any thaw in the communications channels" between the governor and lawmakers.

Valentine said he believes the Senate will end up someplace between the positions taken by the House and the governor. He said his own preference was to use ongoing money, as the House wants, rather than one-time funds as the governor proposes.

---

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com or bbjr@desnews.com