All told, legislators had more than $1 billion to allocate through increased spending in the current year and new spending in the fiscal 2007 budget, which begins July 1.

While money dominated the session — with huge fights between the House and Senate over how large tax cuts should come and where — individual bills also brought contention.

After a decade of effort, legislators passed a so-called "hate crimes" bill.

However, the watered-down 2006 version did not name specific groups who, if attacked, could trigger enhanced penalties for the offenders. Rather, language says that judges and/or the parole board can extend sentences for criminals whose acts cause fear or unrest in the community.

Like the hate crimes bill, other measures were either weakened to a point where much of the controversy evaporated, or were killed outright.

And one reoccurring bill — vouchers for parents who send their children to private schools — didn't even get floor debate or a vote in the House. That issue will likely be only one that plays out in legislative races this coming election.

While the Senate voted Wednesday to override SB70 — a bill Huntsman vetoed because it would have weakened the chief executive's ability to weigh in on hazardous wastes — the House refused to take a veto override vote, and that issue could resurface in any override session later this spring.

Late Wednesday, lawmakers, by not voting, killed a bill that would have allowed school districts to ban student clubs that deal in some way with sexuality — the goal to get rid of the current gay-straight-alliance clubs.

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com