Quick, how many bills did the S.C. General Assembly pass this year? If your guess is higher than a dozen, you're way off.

During the five-month session, interested observers read about and heard debate on several dozen "hot" proposals. But in the end, only 12 bills passed. And as of Wednesday, Gov. Mark Sanford has signed only six into law. They:

Elevate the Division of Motor Vehicles to a customer-oriented Cabinet-level Department of Motor Vehicles.

Establish a prescription-drug bulk-buying program for S.C. seniors.

Crack down on predatory lending with tough new restrictions on the sale of mobile homes, cars and stick-built homes.

Make 0.08 percent the blood-alcohol threshold for drunken driving and set tough new penalties for repeat offenders.

Authorize the state grand jury to investigate securities fraud.

Designate the State Law Enforcement Division as the S.C. anti-terrorism coordinating agency.

Nothing frivolous in the bunch.

Some South Carolinians will fume that the plethora of thwarted bills matching their personal agendas didn't make it through the legislative labyrinth. We hold the Jeffersonian view that delay in implementation of "urgent" agendas - miracle fixes for Medicaid, higher taxes for public school finance and the like - is preferable to error.

The 2003 S.C. General Assembly was a model of restraint. We commend members collectively for doing only what really needed to be done and deferring the rest for further discussion.