GOP legislators trying to one-up each other

There is usually a bit of tension between the Republican Utah Senate and GOP majority in the Utah House.

Over the years leaders of the two bodies occasionally butt heads, resulting in some odd political standoffs.

I recall a GOP Senate caucus in the early 1980s when a then-young and boisterous senator by the name of Brent Overson, upset over the House's budget stand, gave an impassioned speech that ended with a vote to have no agreed-upon budget during the 45-day general session.

"Let (then) Gov. Matheson call us back into a special session," I recall Overson proclaiming.

Veteran GOP Sen. Warren Pugh then stood up to softly chastise his fellow Republicans, saying as the majority party Republicans' obligation was to put a budget together some way, not let the citizens down. And a budget was worked out in the final hours.

But while differences between Republican leaders in the Utah Legislature are commonplace, what's happening today is different.

GOP legislators usually play one-upmanship on legislative Democrats, or even with their own Republican governor — not against each other.

But that's exactly what we're seeing now.

The early good feelings and working relationship between House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, are being strained today over a very public budget/tax-cut fight.

Curtis, a smart politician who likes to look at all the angles, started the interplay this fall when he (along with House Majority Whip Steve Urquhart, R-St. George) came out with a plan to remove the sales tax from food.

Adopting an idea put out by an interested citizen earlier this year, Curtis announced that the dreaded sales tax on food could be completely removed if the state and local tax rates on nonfood items were slightly increased to offset the $166 million loss in state taxes and the $60 million loss in local government revenue.

Valentine, I'm told, learned about the idea just hours before it was made public.

Not only were Senate Republicans caught off guard, since Valentine sat on the Tax Reform Task Force and Curtis did not (the speaker decided not to put himself on the high-powered group this year), the food tax plan made it look like Valentine and other Senate Republicans on the task force were lax in not advocating a way to remove the hated tax.

Valentine then one-upped Curtis, saying he wanted to remove the whole food tax now — but wouldn't vote for any "tax hikes" along the way. Just let the state and local governments cut and tighten their own budgets to make up for the lost revenue, said the "I'm-a-fiscal-conservative" Valentine.

But Curtis and House Republicans were not done showing up their Senate colleagues.