Utahns pleased with Huntsman

Utahns love the job Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is doing with the Utah Legislature, a new public opinion survey shows.

Huntsman's popularity — reaching a very high 83 percent approval rating for the first time since he took office a year ago — may help him, House Republicans and House Democrats in their attempt to move Senate Republicans over to their views on tax cuts and budget items.

Monday, the House and Senate were still at loggerheads over some of the most important budget/tax issues in the 2006 Legislature, which ends March 1. Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News that he will veto bills, budgets or take whatever other steps necessary, including calling legislators back into a special session later this spring, to get the tax reform he wants.

"These high (job approval) numbers should help us" in the executive branch's disputes with some legislators, a top Huntsman aide said, especially if it comes down to an extra session in April or May in which legislators will have to justify their opposition to tax reforms Huntsman wants during this legislative election year.

Huntsman said he was gratified that more than eight out of 10 Utahns like the job he's doing in dealing with the Legislature.

The new poll, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates for the newspaper and KSL-TV, shows the governor in the stratospheric realms of popularity. Former GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt, early in his first term, also received job approval ratings in the mid-80s percentile after the Legislature gave a $90 million property tax cut. Most Utah politicians fall into the 60th or 70th percentiles in job approval ratings.

"I like to think that we're on the right course for the state," Huntsman said after being told of his new job performance ratings.

The Legislature, too, is doing OK, residents say.

Jones found 56 percent of Utahns strongly or somewhat approve of the job lawmakers have done so far.

Anytime an amorphous legislative body has a job approval rating higher than 50 percent, that's a decent showing.

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said: "Congress' approval ratings are in the 30s (percentile). People don't identify us by names, just a group. I think everyone up here — Republicans, Democrats and the governor — are working hard and in good faith. I hope people realize that."