Besides record spending and healthy pay hikes coming out of the 2007 Legislature, teachers and public school advocates saw the defeat of private school vouchers by voters last November. Curtis and Valentine promise there will be no voucher bills in the 2008 session.

And the UEA just won a federal lawsuit over political action committee pay check deductions — a clear attempt by GOP legislators several years ago to harm the union's PAC fund raising. For years, the UEA has opposed some conservative lawmakers' elections through one of the largest PACs in the state.

"We aren't crowing at all," said Kuziak. "But, yes, 2007 was a pretty good year for public education advocates. We look forward to working with all legislators this session to strengthen public education in Utah — something that the citizens are engaged in and clearly want to do."

Huntsman said the public is smart and can smell behavior that is "transparently political" — and he hopes that election-year politics will be lessened because of it.

Perennial issues

Finally, there are usually perennial debates at the Legislature on several issues — abortion, gun rights, DUI and Utah's liquor laws.

Jones asked whether Utahns like the current liquor laws or whether they should be changed to allow either liquor-by-the-drink in state-licensed private clubs or bars or whether it was time to just get the state out of liquor control all together.

Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed said that Utah's current liquor laws — where alcohol, except for 3.2 percent beer, is sold in state stores or in licensed restaurants and private clubs — are fine the way they are.

Thirty-five percent said there should be liquor-by-the-drink — or anyone should be able to buy an alcoholic drink in a licensed bar or restaurant without having to purchase food or a membership.

And 18 percent said the state should just get out of the liquor business altogether and let private retail stores sell liquor any way they wish. Two percent had some other answer and 6 percent didn't know.

A bit surprisingly, then, 53 percent did not like Utah liquor laws as they now stand and wanted some loosening of those liquor laws, Jones found.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com