Four GOP lawmakers woke up Wednesday feeling the sting of Gov. Mike Leavitt's veto pen as the governor killed five of the 411 bills passed by the 1999 Legislature.
Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, had the unfortunate distinction of having two of her bills vetoed by Leavitt. "I am very, very frustrated," she said.One of her two bills specified a portion of Utah's $836 million tobacco settlement would go to the state's children's health insurance program, which is now funded by a per-bed tax paid by hospitals.
Speaking Tuesday night after finishing all his bill signing/bill vetoing work, Leavitt said he may call lawmakers into special session later this year to resolve the state's tobacco settlement issue. Dayton said Leavitt told her that all issues related to how tobacco settlement monies are spent should be addressed at the same time in that special session.
House Speaker Marty Stephens said Wednesday he doesn't now see the need for a special session on the tobacco monies.
"Until we actually see some money, a special session would be a waste because we wouldn't know how much we're getting" this fiscal year, said Stephens, R-Farr West. Congress is now debating whether the federal government should take some of the states' tobacco settlements, so Utah's share is uncertain.
Dayton was most frustrated by the veto of the bill that would have required hospitals to itemize the so-called "sick tax" on patients' bills. Patients are now paying $10 to $20 a day, but the tax is hidden in inflated hospital costs, she said.
"If we buy food or clothes, the receipt shows what we pay in taxes," she said. "But we are hiding the tax on illness and injury. It's an integrity issue. If government imposes a tax, the people have a right to understand how much and why they are being taxed."
It is unlikely there will be a veto-override session. In the six years Leavitt has been governor, lawmakers have yet to override a veto.
In signing a new gun bill aimed specifically at barring weapons from Olympic venues during the 2002 Winter Games and letting owners of homes and churches decide if concealed weapons may be allowed, Leavitt may be headed toward a policy showdown with lawmakers.
Leavitt said he will keep in place a current state rule prohibiting state employees from carrying weapons into the workplace, despite a provision in the new law that says only the Legislature can regulate where firearms can and cannot be carried.
Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, says the bill he sponsored clearly means "that persons with concealed weapons permits can carry their weapons anywhere where a criminal can."
That means executive branch overseers of various state institutions -- from the State Hospital in Provo to the University of Utah to the State Capitol itself -- can't say where residents with concealed weapons permits may carry their guns on state property.
The exceptions are prisons, courthouses or other "secure" areas, says Waddoups.
If the state mental hospital were enclosed in a fence with a guard at the gate, then citizens couldn't bring their weapons on the property because theortically a criminal intending mischief would be stopped from carrying a weapon there also.
But if only parts of buildings at the hospital are secure -- locked down -- then only in those areas could weapons be prohibited. A current state hospital rule says all handguns must be checked at the administration building.
The University of Utah is the "glaring" violation of the new law, says Waddoups. The U. has a rule banning all weapons from its sprawling eastside Salt Lake campus, except those carried by law officers.
The new law says that the Legislature will be the sole entity that decides gun policy for the state. The amended law reads: "Unless specifically authorized by the Legislature by statute, a local authority or state entity may not enact or enforce any ordinance, regulation or rule pertaining to firearms."
But under the new law, U. officials can't make a gun-banning decision for non-employees -- only lawmakers can, says Waddoups.
John Morris, U. general counsel, says considering the U.'s long-standing policy of no guns on campus (except in certain cases), the university won't change its blanket gun ban because of the new law.
"A court may have to decide" if the U.'s rule is illegal, said Morris.
He adds that the U.'s no-gun policy is similar if not exactly like those of other public universities and colleges in the state.
Leavitt insisted Waddoups bill does not prohibit employers from banning their employees from carrying guns. There is an "inherent duty of the employer to provide a safe work environment," said Gary Doxey, Leavitt's general counsel, and that means a ban on all weapons is not only appropriate but legal under federal labor law.
Waddoups adds that as the chief "employer" in state government, Leavitt can decide how his employees act with weapons. While he believes it may not be wise for Leavitt to do so, Waddoups says that means Leavitt could say (as he already has) that state employees with concealed weapons permits may not bring their guns to work or carry their guns in state vehicles while on the job.
But Leavitt can't tell the public using state property how to use its guns, adds Waddoups. "That is a critical difference that's been lost" in the current debate over concealed weapons law, Waddoups says.
"Like any employer, (the governor) has power over his employees. I guess he's saying he doesn't trust" state employees who've passed the concealed weapons permit process to deal responsibly with their weapons, said Waddoups.
"As an employer, I do trust my employees" who may have concealed weapons permits to handle their firearms responsibly, says Waddoups.
"The idea behind" the concealed weapons law "is self protection," says Waddoups. And not allowing state workers on the job the same kind of self-protection as citizens visiting state offices doesn't make sense to him, added Waddoups.
"The UDOT employee (who was specifically told not to bring his concealed weapon to work) may not be able to take his concealed weapon into that building, but the citizen (visiting) the building could," said Waddoups.
Leavitt didn't yield to considerable public pressure to kill three other bills, one that allowed hunting of domesticated elk kept in pens and the other two related to rural counties' attempts to block wilderness designations.
He allowed the elk bill to become law without his signature, and he signed the two wilderness bills.
The elk bill, which prompted public protests by animal rights advocates and scores of letters in opposition from Utah schoolchildren, was the most uncomfortable issue he had to address, Leavitt said, adding he has instructed the Utah Department of Agriculture to come up with a strict set of rules to govern the hunts.
Leavitt wants the rules to require the hunts be held in a fenced enclosure large enough "to approximate the experience of hunting in the wild." He would not say how big the enclosure should be.
"I want to make sure (the hunting) is done in a way that is civil and appropriate," he said Tuesday night.
Leavitt signed a bill that appropriates $450,000 for a satellite mapping program that will document the presence of dirt roads in Utah's hinterlands. The presence of roads can disqualify an area from consideration as wilderness, and environmentalists had been encouraging Leavitt to veto the bill.
He also signed a bill that creates a $1 million war chest that can be used to fight wilderness designations in court. The Constitutional Defense Fund was created at the impetus of rural lawmakers to sue the federal government specifically on issues related to School Trust lands and roads.
"I don't have to spend any of it if I don't want to. I have the clear perogative to decide (how the money is spent)," he said.
Finally, Leavitt allowed to become law without his signature a bill that would give legislators automatic pay raises -- based on a citizen panel's recommendation -- without having to vote on them. The governor said he believes lawmakers should have to vote on raising their own pay, but that ultimately that's a legislative branch, not an executive branch, decision so he didn't veto that bill.