Changing the Guard

House R leadership met with Gov-elect Huntsman today to compare notes on how the executive and legislative branches see things. He'll be good to work with.

Governor Walker will roll out her budget recommendations this Friday, a month before her administration ends. No legislative input was solicited. Oddly, Gov-elect Huntsman also was not invited to participate in the administration’s pre-session planning. Oh well.

On 12/20, the Huntsman transition team will share its recommendations for better organizing government. The team is made up of innovators and leaders. No doubt, the team will have many fresh and beneficial ideas. This “fresh-eyes” approach worked well for President Reagan (the Grace Commission) and for Utah on education issues (the Employers Education Council – out of which the major education reform bill SB154 arose in 2003; Tom Hatch sponsored it in the Senate, and I sponsored it in the House).

To implement good recommendations that come out of the study, and to address the big challenges that have been mounting over the last 12 years (like education and transportation, to name just 2), the executive and legislative branches will need to work together better than they have in the recent past. You folks should insist on it.