Utah lawmakers will meet Wednesday to decide if they'll call a veto override session or push GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter for a special session.
GOP legislative leaders say their members want a special session to vote on a change to the Utah Constitution, which would clearly allow voluntary prayer at public government meetings. A 3rd District judge recently ruled that prayer at the Salt Lake City Council meetings violated the separation of church and state section of the state's Constitution.But Bangerter hasn't yet said whether he'll call such a special session.
Some backroom jockeying is taking place, sources say, the goal being to avoid an override session but get a special session on prayer at government meetings.
Some lawmakers are upset over Bangerter's veto of a photo radar bill, passed in the 1992 Legislature. The bill would have disallowed photo radar - which uses pictures of speeding cars to give the owners a ticket via the mail - except in school zones.
Bangerter vetoed it, saying local governments can make decisions on whether and where to use photo radar.
Bangerter says he'll accept a compromise on photo radar - one that allows local governments to use the new technology as they see fit but that says the first two photo radar speeding tickets won't go against a driver's insurance or permanent record. But he denies there's any connection with that compromise and his calling a special session for the prayer issue.