End of the four-day work week?

While former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is garnering a lot of national attention around a possible bid to become president, one of his most-publicized acts as governor may be in trouble.

HB328 would require each state agency to keep at least one of its locations open a minimum of nine hours a day Monday through Friday. That would effectively end the four-day work week Huntsman imposed at the start of the recession in order to save money on energy costs.
Not long after he imposed the four-day schedule, an internal analysis said it had saved 13 percent in energy use. But now the numbers look a little different, apparently. This story says an audit last July found the change is costing more than it saves.
I don’t have any problem with returning to a five-day week. It makes sense on a lot of levels. The courts, for example, remain open on Fridays, but they often find themselves hamstrung when state workers, such as attorneys or case workers, are not available.
But — and this is a big but — this really shouldn’t be the Legislature’s call. Lawmakers like to poke their noses into every corner of the state. The governor runs the executive branch. A governor switched the agencies to a four-day schedule, and a governor ought to switch them back, if he is so inclined. If not, and if people think it’s a big enough deal, he’ll have to explain himself to voters in two years.