While the Utah Senate crafts a new bill targeting the registry, Jon Huntsman Jr. argues such a legislative move is inappropriate.
"I'm not sure that the state has a place overreaching or micromanaging what is done at the local-government level," he said this week when asked about a potential registry ban.
Huntsman said if the registry is consistent with state law, "which I suspect it is," then it is the prerogative of city officials "to do what they want to do."
Those comments come after the Senate sidestepped the controversial anti-registry bill by Republican Sen. Chris Buttars, perhaps in response to recent inflammatory remarks by the West Jordan lawmaker.
However, a replacement bill, SB299, by Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, is in the works.
Neither Huntsman nor city officials have seen the latest language to determine the impact of Bell's bill on the registry. But, at least about the Buttars version, the GOP governor said he is not preoccupied by a veto decision.
"I just don't think it will make it that far," Huntsman said.
The question for Mayor Ralph Becker's team: Will the latest iteration kill the newly adopted registry and the city's 2006 adult-designee ordinance?
The former provides a voluntary mechanism for employers to decide whether to issue health-care benefits for same-sex couples or other adult cohabitants who are financially interdependent.
The latter provides health insurance to the adult designees of city employees, 78 percent of whom are not gay.
Buttars, whose SB267 is shelved in the Senate Rules Committee, argues Becker's registry violates Amendment 3 - the provision in the Utah Constitution that bans gay marriage.
Becker, a Democrat, insists the registry was vetted by city attorneys and poses no threat to state law. Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has suggested the courts should decide.
Meantime, the city's Capitol Hill lobbyist said Bell's SB299 may not have "as sweeping an impact."
"As I understand it, it will be more narrow in scope," Ben McAdams explained.
Although the conservative Utah Eagle Forum has ranked the registry as a top villain, Becker Chief of Staff David Everitt suspects lawmakers are losing their stomach for tackling it.
"People are concerned about the image of the state - from the governor on down," Everitt said Tuesday. "That may determine how much play the registry [bill] gets."
Also at play: political priorities as the session heads into its final week. Questions persist about how much appetite there is for a registry ban in the Utah House.
