Bills still await Huntsman

And a legislative leader said Monday that SCR2 may be on Huntsman's hit list.

But because it is a concurrent resolution, Huntsman doesn't need to actually veto it. He can just not sign it, taking no action at all on SCR2.

The resolution dies without the governor's signature, says Legislative General Counsel Gay Taylor. In addition, she adds, because he actually didn't veto the measure, the Legislature can't override his veto and put SCR2 in place over the governor's objections — as it could any other vetoed bill or budget line-item veto.

SCR2 passed the Senate 24-2. It passed the House on the final day of the session, 61-6, easily getting more than the two-thirds needed in each body to override a gubernatorial veto.

"A concurrent resolution takes the positive action of three parties, the House, the Senate and the governor," said Taylor. If he doesn't sign it, there's no new landfill in 2005 unless Huntsman puts the issue on a special legislative session.

In addition to SCR2, legislative leaders said they've heard that SB110 could be in trouble with the governor. That medical device bill was pushed hard by Merit Medical CEO and Chairman Fred Lampropoulos, who ran against Huntsman for governor last year and was eliminated in the state Republican Party Convention. Merit Medical makes a variety of medical products, one of its most successful a shunt used in heart surgery.

The bill says that if a single-use medical device is refurbished, the person refurbishing the device has sole liability in any actions against the original manufacturer.

Any difference in the bill is not personal, officials say. Huntsman and Lampropoulos consider each other friends, and several weeks ago Huntsman and Lampropoulos played together in a band during ceremonies honoring Huntsman's father as a long-time civic leader in Utah.

Other bills that also could be on the list are HB42, the so-called "Ritalin bill" that would clarify a state rule prohibiting teachers from requiring children to take medication for behavioral problems, HB25, which would allow direct-entry midwives to be licensed by the state for home births, and HB338, a child welfare bill that some people worry could jeopardize the state's ability to meet the mandates of a federal court settlement.

Should Huntsman veto some bills today (and governors historically veto a handful), the GOP-controlled Legislature has been loath in recent years to even call a veto override session.

In his eight years in office, former GOP-Gov. Norm Bangerter had only one veto overridden. Former GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt didn't even face a veto override session until his 10th year in office.

But current GOP leaders said Monday they can see a serious consideration by all lawmakers of calling such an override session, depending on what bills Huntsman may choose to veto.

"I don't see a Lane Beattie in the current leadership," joked one leader. Former Senate President Lane Beattie once told a GOP leadership meeting that he would oppose any attempt to call a veto override session on a Leavitt action, saying an override vote just embarrasses the elected state leader of their Republican Party.

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Contributing: Associated Press

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; jloftin@desnews.com