Internal/personal politics always leave some hard feelings, however. House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander, R-Orem, lost his temper several times at fellow Republicans, leading one GOP House member to crack "I'm not going to pull an Alexander" when she rose to criticize a colleague's opposition to her bill.

And Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who is known to get visibly red-faced when upset, had a few "blushing" moments, as one colleague put it.

But those big (revenue) surpluses cooled many tempers, Urquhart noted. "You may still have to say 'no' when you have a lot of extra cash, "but money still gives you options" that legislators didn't have in the 2002, 2003 and 2004 Legislatures.

Finally, both Democratic- and GOP-backed government reform bills, even Huntsman's own executive reform measures, died quietly this year.

Huntsman said he'll try in the 2006 Legislature to get a constitutional amendment limiting governors to two terms. "And some items I can do through executive order," although that would only apply to his administration, not to future governors.

A Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll showed overwhelming support (higher than 75 percent) for many of the measures, but like other years lawmakers not only turned their back on the bills, they refused to let some even be debated in a committee, noted House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake.

A GOP-sponsored bill that would have lowered the lobbyist threshold from $50 to $10 for naming a legislator who takes a gift failed after a Democratic senator didn't support it in a committee.

And all of the Democratic-sponsored reform bills died as well.

Utah Common Cause's Tony Musci recently said it's hard to explain why legislators continually refuse to change how they conduct their own activities when year after year so many Utahns want reforms.

"It's a complicated answer. Part of it is that power corrupts — not that these people are lawbreakers. They aren't. But controlling power is the underlying theme" in resistance to change, he said.

"There's also the sense that something is owed them."

The part-time legislators have little pay, and perks of office are one way of justifying the sacrifices they make. Undervaluing a public official's work is always a dangerous thing, said Musci, as recent scandals in local government have shown.

"Finally, they don't want to change a system that nurtured them into office, nurtured them while in office," he said.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com