The previous 60 days had been a dream of sorts for legislators, and just in time for the term-limited many who had waited their careers for a fantasy session like this. Faced with excess billions and the option to spend it or give it back in tax relief, they did both, though much of the latter will be delayed a year or could end up being a mirage.

   They also had it both ways on the big ethics issue of financial disclosure for legislators, which nearly everyone voted for but which died when both houses disagreed over how tough to make it. Surely they didn't plan it that way, did they?

   The two houses did manage to agree to ban cockfighting, by August 2008, with so little fuss that the failures of past years seem like just a bad dream, especially for the birds.

   By far, the most realistic attitude was shown on insurance matters, which is surprising given the justifiable anger and resentment toward the companies. Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon advanced a pragmatic set of changes and $100 million in incentives to get more companies to do business in this small, high-risk state. There is no guarantee it will work, but, given that companies don't have to be here, no one came up with a better idea.

   Some lawmakers both disappointed and excelled in the same session, none more so than Rep. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner. As chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, he was best positioned to stop the proliferation of the hot new form of gambling, video bingo devices that look and play like slot machines. Yet he stood by as lobbyists for machine-maker Cadillac Jack put a hit on the ban bill.

   Martiny redeemed himself, however, by galvanizing the reform of the state's shameful indigent defense system, which has served neither the accused nor the people. He patiently worked with district attorneys, judges and lawyers to settle turf battles and to create a single state board to oversee local offices that have been managed, if that's the word, by 41 different panels.

   Yet, as a fiscal session, the Legislature's work is to be judged on how they handled the money. The best decisions were made on the $1.9 billion surplus, with almost half going to highways, ports and coastal restoration. More was used to assemble $1 billion for the Road Home, which the governor will offer as the state's match in negotiations with Congress for another $4 billion to cover the program's gaping deficit.

   Less discipline and purpose was shown on the current operating budget. Pay raises for teachers, faculty and state workers can be justified, along with full funding the higher education formula and providing more disabled citizens with in-home care.

   The addition of 1,000 new employees to the state payroll is more questionable. Because that's the first place the next governor might look to trim future spending, those filling those positions should not count on job security.

   Though not thrilled about it, the governor did go along with the tax cut legislators clamored for most, a three-year phase-back-in of the income tax deductions that were lost in the so-called Stelly tax swap plan of 2002.

   Then legislators went on a tear in the final hours and passed hundreds of millions in tax credits and deductions that will not take effect until next year or the year after, leaving a new governor and legislature to figure out how to pay for them. Gov. Blanco should resist that temptation with a wake-up call from her veto pen, thus allowing the next bunch to find a way to make their own dreams come true.