Are We There Yet?

The legislature has passed the bulk of its budget, though admittedly the easy part of it. While there is still plenty of time to come completely unraveled, I'm pleased with the progress of the session. It promises to be fiscally good for the State, and that is necessary for us to thrive.

I am very pleased that we passed the bulk of the budget bill with 2 1/2 weeks to go. By getting the consensus portions out of the way early, it brings the battles ahead more sharply into focus. It defines the amount of money remaining, for which the various programs will compete.

As a progress report, I'm proud of Governor Huntsman. (I better be; my wife had lunch with the First Lady today and now demands that I be nice to Mary Kay's husband; a shrewd -- if not outright nefarious -- tactic, I might editorialize; to fight fire with fire, when the moment is right, I will send my youngest daughter to the East Building with a plate of cookies; unless he's super-human, he'll be putty in my hands.) I think Gov. Huntsman is finding his feet quite well and is taking positions on tough issues. As I wrote earlier, it's less important to me that he agree with me on issues (though he should, as a clear-thinking individual) than that he roll up his sleeves and dig into the tough issues. I have seen no sign of him shrinking from the tough ones -- and that's pretty cool.