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Show Hampton Will Seek Fourth Term, Bunnell Predicts in Interview The liklihood of Gov. Calvin L. Rampton seeking an unprecedented unpre-cedented fourth term as chief executive officer of the state is excellent, according to word received this week from Sen. Omar B. Bunnell, Grand County's representative in the Utah State Senate and Senate Majority Leader. "With election day less than ten months away, speculation is rife on Capitol Hill regarding regard-ing the major approaching contests," he said. "I will venture to predict that Gov. Rampton will run for his fourth term and that he will be challenged by Attorney General Gener-al Vernon Romney; and that Romney will have two or three contestants in the primaries. Several Republicans have announced an-nounced their intention to challenge Sen. Moss, but no serious contenders against either Representative Gunn McKay or Allen Howe have surfaced up to this time," Sen. Bunnell stated. The Majority Leader said that during its first week, the legislature made very good progress completing the State's budget for next year. "We should be able to have the budgeting under control by the end of this week," he continued. "Fortunately our main problem is going to be what we should do with a ten to twelve million dollar surplus. sur-plus. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, but it is just over one per cent of our total projected budget for next year and it represents about $8 for each person in the State of Utah. Plans for using it range from reducing the income tax or the sales tax, refunding it to our citizens, or placing it in a reserve account to pay on our bonded indebtedness." Sen. Bunnell indicated that there will be a lot of maneuvering for political advantage ad-vantage by both parties but it is such a small amount compared to the total budget that the final disposition will have little effect on the final total budget and tax picture. "It is certainly much better to have even a one per cent surplus than a deficit of any amount," he said. The Senate seems reluctant to consider any nonbudgetary items and although one hundred and eleven bills have been introduced, Sen. Bunnell predicted that only ten to twenty of these items will be considered in this session. Among those likely to be considered are: medical malpractice mal-practice insurance, the recall petition, reorganization of the liquor commission, and a constitutional amendment to extend the budget session to sixty days. "These matters together with several housekeeping house-keeping measures will probably probab-ly constitute the bulk of the legislation considered outside of the budget," he concluded. |