Legislators, Huntsman can be proud

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. now has until March 20 to sign, veto or allow to become law without his signature more than 400 bills and resolutions passed by the 2007 Legislature.

Lawmakers adjourned at midnight Feb. 28 after adopting record spending budgets and granting a $220 million tax cut that takes effect Jan. 1, 2008.

Legislators and Huntsman have reason to be proud of their work over the 45-day session.

Republicans, Democrats and the governor also got along remarkably well.

Unlike the 2006 session, Huntsman was careful not to hint — or outright say — which bills or budget line items he may veto.

In media interviews a year ago, Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News and other news outlets which bills he had concerns with.

At least once, and maybe more often, GOP House and Senate leaders said there was no point in even bringing a bill to the floor for a vote toward the session's end because Huntsman had said he would likely veto it.

No talk like that as the 2007 Legislature wound down. However, Huntsman does say he has "concerns" on some bills, including a controversial school clubs bill. Members of the State Board of Education have asked Huntsman to veto that bill along with a few other education bills. Huntsman met with sponsors of the club bill Thursday and says he'll make a decision in a few days.

Because Utah state politics is so overwhelmingly Republican — a GOP governor and two-thirds majorities Republican in both the state House and Senate — it has become an insult to the governor for GOP legislators to even talk about overriding one of his vetoes.

It's a pretty stupid reason not to consider an override — bruising the governor's ego.

But there it is.

Back in the mid-1990s, the then-Senate president even said that there would be no veto override session as long as he was leading the Senate. And in at least one case, the president called up fellow GOP senators and asked them not to vote for a veto override session in the officially required polling of lawmakers following a gubernatorial veto.

Accordingly, Gov. Mike Leavitt, a popular Republican, only had one veto override session called by lawmakers in his 11 years in office.

I've been around long enough to remember when Utah had a Democratic governor with a GOP-controlled House and Senate.