For once, House and Senate members switched temperament this session. The raucous 75-member House got along pretty well while the clubby 29-member Senate had some sharp words for colleagues after adjournment of the 1995 Legislature.

Meanwhile, GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt said all did a good job, adding that he doesn't now see a single bill he may veto."You've done an excellent job," Leavitt told lawmakers just after midnight. "You put together a tight budget, adequately funding infrastructure and giving a total $140 million property tax cut. Well done."

While House Republicans and Democrats basically had kind things to say about each other, that wasn't the case in the Senate.

Senate President Lane Beattie, R-West Bountiful, praised the increased efficiency that allowed lawmakers to pass more bills into law than any other year in history, and a political process that "became less and less partisan" as the session went on.

It sounds like one big happy family, but Senate Democrats aren't buying it. "Overall, we felt excluded throughout the process," said Senate Minority Leader Scott Howell, D-Granite. "It's a sad commentary where one party exercises all the rights and keys to the legislative process and they use it to exclude the minority. At times, it was pretty mean-spirited."

Howell praised Beattie's leadership but severely criticized Senate Majority Whip Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, as "pretty dogmatic" and often ruthless. In fact, Blackham was named by other Democrats for his petty partisan politics that kept Democratic priorities bottled up and away from public debate.

"He is no country bumpkin," Howell said. "But what he did does not make for good government that solves problems and makes progress."

While Beattie teed off on the media and other pet peeves on several occasions, House Speaker Mel Brown, R-Midvale was mild-mannered.

"The session went very well, I believe, especially considering it was my first year in the speaker's chair," said Brown.

What about the tiff with fellow Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt over the budget and tax cuts?

"I wouldn't say that there was a shift in power from the executive to the legislative. But we did, I think, reinstate the healthy adversary relationship between the branches," said Brown. "On a personal level, we have a great relationship with the governor. We talk and listen well with each other. But the legislative role in government did surface again, and that role has suffered some in recent years."

Leavitt said it's been a decade since there's been new leadership in the House and Senate at the same time, like this year. Downplaying differences over the budget, Leavitt said early Thursday "this was not always an easy process. There were challenging times, hard-fought differences. But when we were done, it was a good result."

Howell politely disagreed. "The governor was stymied by his own political party. He had the vision of what we needed to invest for our future and he lost. And he lacked the political will to fight back."

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House Minority Leader Frank Pignanelli, D-Salt Lake, said he thought legislative GOP leadership stood up to Leavitt.

"It looks to me that Republican legislative leadership was the big winner in this session. They went eye-to-eye with the governor. They wouldn't rubber stamp what he wanted. There's good and bad in that success, I guess."

However, Pignanelli said he didn't think Republicans provided the vision needed in higher education and transportation. "Like usual, with those matters we just talked and covered the real problems over."

Leavitt wasn't seen much around House and Senate chambers this year. But to win a critical water-funding fight, Leavitt took an unusual step. He stood outside the double main doors of the House Chambers for more than half an hour Wednesday night as top aides pulled Republican and Democratic representatives out the doors where he leaned on them. For 30 minutes the separation of executive and legislative branches was about an inch thick - the thickness of the door.

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