Gov. Mike Leavitt should have the courage to stand up to a problem, find a solution and stick with it until it's finished, Leavitt's Democratic opponent, Jim Bradley, said Tuesday.
Leavitt said he's done just that, and in a debate before the Salt Lake Rotary he ticked off a number of programs and solutions he's championed over the past four years.Leavitt is way ahead in public opinion polls, and the under-funded and admitted underdog Bradley joked at the end of the debate that he's looking forward to the end of the next three weeks. The election is Nov. 5.
But until then, said Bradley, he's going to talk about the lack of leadership in the state on issues such as transportation, education, open space planning and protecting the environment.
Leavitt and former GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter have to take responsibility for foot-dragging on Utah's transportation problems, especially gridlock on I-15, said Bradley, a former Salt Lake County commissioner who worked in the administration of the late Gov. Scott M. Matheson.
Environmental impact statements could have been hustled along. Even today there's no funding package put together for the $1.4 billion reconstruction/expansion of I-15 in Salt Lake County, which begins next spring, said Bradley.
Leavitt said that upon taking office in January 1993 he found a Wasatch Front Regional Council recommendation that reconstructing I-15 would take nine years and it would take until October 1996 to get proper clearances in federal regulations. It's October 1996 and the state is ready to go, said the governor. But more, Leavitt said he cut construction time from nine years to 41/2 years, thus inconveniencing the driving public less.
"I take that (explanation) as an apology," said Bradley. Proper planning would have started construction three to five years ago; that would have allowed a nine-year, better-planned construction time frame and not result in "the paralyzing" of I-15 traffic for 41/2 years. "Frankly, if I owned a business along I-15 that depends on (freeway) traffic flow, I'd think of selling" it, said Bradley.
Leavitt said bids will require that two lanes of traffic both ways always be open. "We're not shutting down I-15, as some have rumored."
After Bradley said the gasoline tax must go up to help pay for the project but bonding should be seen as a last resort, Leavitt said not bonding would mean the gas tax would have to increase by 30 cents a gallon.
"Certainly I don't want that, and I don't think my opponent does either. The fact is, three and four years out (on construction) we'll need $400 million or $500 million in one year (to pay for the work)" and there's no way to generate that kind of cash flow out of a small gas tax increase, said Leavitt. Bonding is a must, he said.
Leavitt anticipates the 1997 Legislature will index the state per-gallon gasoline tax to inflation, adding about 1 cent each year to the tax over 10 years.
Bradley said he supports President Clinton's designation of a 1.7 million-acre national monument in southern Utah. And Utahns shouldn't be surprised by the method Clinton took. "When you have a vitriolic congressional delegation" with an intransigent wilderness proposal and a "lack of leadership" from the governor, "why should the president bring (Utah GOP leaders) to the table?" "I think a message was sent by (Clinton to Utah leaders). If you won't be productive (in dealing with the president), why bother?"
Leavitt drew applause from Rotarians when he sharply criticized the way Clinton designated the monument. "I suggested 21/2 years ago a national area down there." To use as an excuse that state GOP officeholders have been "unpleasant," Leavitt said, "well, that is just a real breach in the public's trust."
Making a suggestion of preservation, as Leavitt did, but then "not following through" because a couple of rural county commissioners and some in Utah's congressional delegation didn't like his idea is a perfect example of Leavitt's leadership, said Bradley.