Leavitt vetoes sex ed bill

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    By BRIAN D. HENDERSON

    Utah Governor Mike Leavitt vetoed six bills from the 2000 legislative session, but legislators don’t expect any will warrant a fight for an override session.

    House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, told the Deseret News that five of the six bills were minor, and he doesn’t expect anyone to challenge the governor’s decisions. Rep. Bill Wright’s sex education bill was the only high profile bill.

    Wright’s HB411 would require abstinence only instruction in sex education courses aimed at preventing sexually transmitted diseases and avoiding teen pregnancy.

    Rep. Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said Leavitt vetoed the bill because it wasn’t worth the political fallout he would have faced had the bill become law.

    “He did it because of public perception and the stir created in the press and people talking about it on the talk shows,” Waddoups said.

    Bills enacted by the legislature are effective May 1, the 60th day following the end of the session, March 1.

    The legislature holds power to override a veto by the governor if two-thirds of the members in each house vote for a veto override session and subsequently two-thirds of each house vote for the override in that session.

    The legislature has never called a veto override session in any of Leavitt’s eight years in office.

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