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SALT LAKE CITY — The veto override session will continue, at least for the state Senate, which couldn't muster the votes Friday needed to override Gov. Gary Herbert's veto of a bill to eliminate the state's four-day workweek.
Earlier Friday morning, the House had voted to overturn the governor's veto on that bill during a rare override session.
Senate President Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, lobbied Senate Democrats, meeting with them in caucus, attempting to garner a sufficient number of votes to overturn the veto but he was unsuccessful. The Senate will reconvene Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Republican Sens. Lyle Hillyard, of Logan, and Curtis Bramble, of Provo, were absent Friday, and could have cast the deciding votes on HB328. Another GOP senator was allowed to leave. Hillyard and Bramble are expected to attend Saturday's session.
Sen. Pat Jones, D-Holladay, said she would not vote for the override over concerns about disrupting state employees' child care arrangements and other personal accommodations that workers had to make when the four-day week was implemented.
There was no reason the issue could not be revived in the 2012 General Session, she said.
Meanwhile the House and Senate also voted to override Herbert's veto of a bill that would earmark growth in future sales-tax money for road projects.
Despite debate that SB229 was yet another earmark, both representatives and senators argued that the move was an investment in the state's transportation infrastructure.
Others, however, said setting aside the funds for roads sent the message that transportation is more important than other programs funded by the state including education and human services programs.
SB229 had been the focus of the session called by legislative leaders. The bill would set aside nearly 30 percent of additional future sales-tax revenues for road construction, beginning in 2013. Herbert said the earmark could hurt other state programs, including education.
SB229's sponsor, Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, has said his bill would not only ensure better funding for transportation, it would create in effect a second Rainy Day Fund that could be used to help other areas of the budget in tough times.
The bill is also seen as a way of avoiding a gas-tax increase in the 2012 Legislature, given that's an election year for the majority of lawmakers. A bill boosting the gas tax failed last session.
House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, urged the GOP caucus to vote to override the bill, saying it's the Legislature that has responsibility for setting the state budget and is "not subservient" to the executive branch.
Following the override vote, Herbert issued a statement saying education was the "biggest loser" Friday.
He called SB229 a "bad way to allocate our very limited state resources.
"I have always been and will continue to be a strong supporter of transportation funding. But earmarking revenues risks subsequent increased bonding, jeopardizes Utah’s AAA bond rating and exacerbates a lack of budgetary flexibility."
House Republicans surprised their Senate colleagues by overriding the governor's veto of HB328, intended to end the four-day workweek for state agencies established to save energy costs by closing offices on Fridays.
Waddoups said he was calling Senate Republicans into a caucus to decide what to do. Waddoups said he didn't know how much support the bill had.
That bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, asked to bring the bill back today for a vote after a caucus discussion about whether former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. had the authority to establish the shortened workweek.
The same debate continued on the House floor, where members also disagreed over whether their constituents liked the longer hours state offices are now open Mondays through Thursdays or angry that those same offices are shuttered on Fridays.
Email:lroche@ksl.com
