New governor. New GOP legislative leaders. New building. Same old politics.

From the outside, the 2005 Legislature looked different than any other in the past 25 years.

But inside there were the politics of tuition-tax credits, hate crimes, seat belts, lobbyist gift-giving, special pork spending and dozens of other issues and fights seen annually.

While Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, and House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and other legislators and lobbyists said the 2005 Legislature was one of the most congenial in recent years, some of the bitter battles and hard feelings will linger for others.

Intermountain Health Care had a knockdown political fight with several senators before bills that would break up the state's largest hospital chain and/or tax it went to interim study.

HJR1, what some saw as a meaningless resolution asking Congress to weigh in on the bank/nonprofit credit union mudbath, led again to hard lobbying and bruised egos.

And tuition-tax credits could spill over into the 2006 legislative elections.

Sources told the newspaper that supporters of tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools may target for defeat in the next election eight of the 21 House Republicans who voted with the 19 Democrats to kill the bill, 40-34, last Friday. Seven of those 21 are freshmen who are sometimes seen as easy pickings in their first re-election campaign.

Pro-tuition tax credit groups will help a tax-credit-supporter Republican who challenges one of the eight GOP incumbents raise $25,000 for a convention or primary battle, sources said this week.

Those and a few other examples of hardball politics aside, relations between the governor, GOP and Democratic legislators improved several weeks ago when new revenue estimates showed $100 million more to spend.

In fact, HB97, a bill backed by Curtis and Valentine, faded and may never been seen again.

A Huntsman aide likened it to one newlywed serving the other with divorce papers. The bill would have changed the balance of power between the branches of government in budget-setting, and Huntsman says he was caught unaware by it.

"With the way we adopted the budget this year" — a bifurcated system that locks in base-budget spending early in the session — "I don't know if we need" HB97, Curtis said this week. He adds he may ask the Constitutional Revision Commission to look at the issue before the 2006 Legislature.

"This has been a pretty mellow session politically," said Curtis, his first as speaker. "Huntsman's style is direct, straightforward." No harsh words or threats over the budget or bills. "He just told us want he wanted and asked for our help."