GOP had 9-1 edge in bills passed

"All I can say is that I hope that every legislator is reading the bills they are voting on. I read the bills," Bramble said. But many lawmakers likely do not read all the bills, especially some with a more technical nature, like tax or insurance measures — and some that may be very lengthy.

On average for all legislators, a typical member would have introduced seven bills this year and passed four — and had a legislative batting average of .586.

Heroes and zeros

Fifteen members of the Legislature passed 100 percent of the bills they introduced — including 12 Republicans and three Democrats. But not all such "legislative heroes" are created equal: Some introduced 15 times as many bills as others.

Bramble introduced 15 bills and passed all of them. Not far behind, introducing and passing nine bills each, were Senate Majority Whip Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful, and Senate Assistant Majority Whip Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse.

But among the 100 percent group, House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, introduced and passed just one bill, as did Rep. Kay McIff, R-Richfield. Introducing and passing just two bills each were Reps. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville; Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley; Rep. Phil Riesen, D-East Millcreek; and Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem.

The members who passed the most bills overall — but maybe had slightly lower legislative batting average ratios — were Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, who passed 18 bills (of 19 introduced). Bramble was next with 15. Sen. Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City, had 12. And Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, passed 11.

Hillyard, who has served 25 years, first in the House, then in the Senate, is one of the body's great workhorses, introducing and passing a high number of bills each session.

The list of "legislative zeros" is much smaller this year. Last year, 16 members failed to pass any bills. This year, only five did. All were House members, and four of the five were Democrats. Only two of them bothered to introduce any bills (not counting the "boxcar" bills with no text).

Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake, introduced four bills and passed none. Rep. Bud Bowman, R-Cedar City, introduced one bill that failed to pass. However, Bowman had heart surgery before the session started and had a cancerous kidney removed near the end of the session — so he may have had an excuse not to do more.

Another of the "zeros" also had health problems: Rep. Carl Duckworth, R-Magna, who is battling multiple myeloma cancer. However, in the past four years, he had only introduced one "boxcar" bill, and he introduced none this year. The title of the one bill without text that he did introduce last year was "Special License Plate for Deaf and Hard of Hearing."