Mo. session ebbed from inaction to whirlwind - By Chris Blank AP

May 17, 5:04 PM EDT Mo. session ebbed from inaction to whirlwind By CHRIS BLANK Associated Press Writer Advertisement Click here to find out more! JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- If lawmakers woke up a little groggy Saturday, it's probably because they did most their work in the final hours before Friday's mandatory end to their legislative session. Illegal immigration, property taxes, repealing campaign contribution limits, Internet harassment. Each was identified as a priority by Gov. Matt Blunt or legislative leaders. All were put off until the final day of a session that was disrupted just two weeks after it began when Blunt announced that he would not seek re-election. Blunt and Republican leaders said they still accomplished almost everything they set out to do. They passed bills requiring local governments to reduce their tax rates when property values rise, cracking down on illegal immigrants and their employers and making it illegal to harass others by computers, text messages and other electronic devices after the suicide of a St. Charles County teen. The glaring exception was Blunt's plan to create a program to help low-income Missourians get health insurance. It spent most of the session being studied in a House committee and was never debated on the floor. "A successful session doesn't mean that you passed every single bill that you'd like to pass," Blunt said. "It doesn't even mean that you passed every important bill that you'd like to pass, but it does mean that you passed a number of priorities that move Missouri forward and reflect the values of our state." In guiding those priorities, lawmakers often seemed like someone learning to drive a stick-shift car - suddenly lurching forward after long periods of stagnation. For most of the last four months, lawmakers took a casual pace, but they finished the session with a last-day whirlwind of activity. Sixty percent of the 117 nonbudget bills that are headed to the governor got final approval hours before lawmakers adjourned Friday evening. The House didn't even start meeting for more than an hour or two each day until late March, and the Senate avoided some controversial bills that in previous years have sparked partisan rancor, late nights and filibusters. House Minority Leader Paul LeVota said poor leadership and a lack of direction caused lawmakers to become a "do-nothing Legislature." "They spent more time on the snow cone/ice cream cone than they did talking about what we need to do to improve health care in Missouri," said LeVota, D-Independence. Lawmakers did pass a bill declaring the ice cream cone as the official state dessert. In the session's final week, it was a debate over whether to repeal a law passed last year that triggered the most attention. Efforts to repeal a "village law" that allows property owners in unincorporated areas to avoid county planning and zoning requirements sparked political jockeying that ensnared floor debate in the House and Senate and threatened most of the session's big-ticket bills. Senators pushing for the repeal temporarily prevented debate on the immigration bill, then House Speaker Rod Jetton enlisted the help of several senators to hold up the village-law repeal. The standoff didn't end until Republican senators brokered a 4 a.m. deal with Jetton allowing the village-law repeal to pass with a delayed implementation. House leaders then on the session's final day blasted through the blockage, allowing little debate while passing the village-law repeal and three other major bills in just over an hour - almost before fatigued senators reconvened Friday morning. House Majority Leader Steven Tilley said he advised Democrats he planned to move through the bills quickly and thanked them for not using stall tactics. "The bottom line is it was a busy day," said Tilley, R-Perryville. But the flurry of action did not help a last-ditch effort to resurrect a 2006 law requiring voters to show a government-issued photo ID that was thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court. Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that a similar Indiana law didn't violate the U.S. Constitution, the House approved a proposed constitutional amendment clearing the way for a future law requiring voters show an ID at the polls. Senate leaders flirted with the idea, but decided there wasn't enough time. The voter ID measure, along with a broad abortion bill that would have sent people to jail for "coercing" others to have the procedure, were among the ideas for which House members blamed the Senate for failing to pass. House members also killed several bills. Some Republicans joined minority Democrats to vote down measures to change how some state judges are selected; to create a tax incentive to encourage private donations so autistic children could attend private schools; to limit payments from a state fund to compensate twice-injured workers; and to lower the minimum wage for waiters and other tipped employees. Still, Republicans said that what they did steer through will help the party stay in gear through the November elections and allow them to stay in the driver's seat at the Capitol. "We've got a great message going forward, as we head off in the next year, because we have improved the lives of Missourians this session," said House Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt, R-Blue Springs. -- On the Net: Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov -- http://www.bransonedge.com http://www.bransonmissouri.blogspot.com