State legislators laid it on particularly thick this week as they prepared for adjournment. Our reporter quoted one veteran lawmaker as describing the first of the two-year, 116th session as being a "banner year" in terms of productivity. For those interested in some basic reforms of the system, that's quite a spin. Maybe we wouldn't be so disappointed had the year not started out so promising.

After years of legislative gridlock, primarily as a result of Senate rules that allow bills to either be held up indefinitely or on the whim of a single senator, the majority of that body finally had enough. The successful change in the rules during the opening days was a priority not only of the leadership, but also of the governor.

The wisdom of those changes was borne out by relatively quick passage of a tort reform package which would still have been languishing had it not been for rules revisions. But after tort reform, the governor's agenda went downhill fast.

One of our biggest disappointments is in the lack of any real interest in completing the government restructuring reform advocated by governors as far back as Strom Thurmond and finally pushed ahead by Carroll Campbell. One result of the Campbell reform was a starter Cabinet system that needs to be fleshed out with some key offices, such as superintendent of education, adjutant general and secretary of state. More administrative restructuring also is in order, since far too many state agencies still are governed by legislatively appointed boards and commissions which have no direct accountability.

The House continues to give a nod to restructuring and this year agreed to let the voters decide if the secretary of state and superintendent of education should be appointed rather than elected. At a minimum, the adjutant general and secretary of agriculture should be added to that list. But there was virtually no interest in the Senate. While we heard promises that the Senate would seriously consider putting a package of constitutional officers on the ballot next year, we fear it has dragged its feet too long. Next year is an election year both for the governor and for the House of Representatives. While GOP legislators who have given this voter-popular governor a hard time may wake up to the political risk they are taking, Democrats will be under even more intense pressure to keep any Sanford agenda item from passing.

Those who have been asleep to the partisan knife-sharpening should note how quickly the state Democratic Party chairman jumped in on the legislative bashing of the governor during the Santee Cooper controversy. That controversy was sad testimony to the political power of the electric cooperatives and their legislative allies, both enemies of the Santee Cooper reforms the governor was in the process of implementing. Unfortunately, those reforms were dealt a body blow by a shockingly large margin of lawmakers, when they greatly diminished the governor's power over that board.

As has been widely noted, this hasn't exactly been a banner year for the governor. His attempt at Santee Cooper reforms worsened his relationship with the protectionist Legislature and his efforts to convince lawmakers to put more money into debt reduction not only fell on deaf ears but he was bashed for days during the override of most of his nearly $96 million in vetoes. Legislative unpleasantness also was exhibited when, by a vote of 60-53, the House refused to even consider a much-diminished version of the governor's school choice proposal, which would have benefited students only in failing schools. In a statement, the governor did take comfort in the legislative passage of tort reform and tax cuts for small businesses, plus several other economic development measures.

Good economic times did allow the Legislature to pass a generous budget that beefed up funding for education and some critical health and safety agencies that had suffered from previous tough economic times and overly optimistic income projections. It took nearly all session, but the Legislature did agree to let a constitutional amendment that ended the mini-bottle era to go into effect but put off until next year some questions on implementation.

Certainly passage of a bill to allow the state grand jury to investigate environmental crimes, which stalled last year, should be placed on the plus side as should passage of a bill known as "Mary Lynn's law." The latter, aimed at tightening the state's anti-stalking law, was in response to the horrendous murder of a Charleston woman.

Other pluses include a tougher domestic violence law; a compromise bill that allows local option on casino gambling that should prevent operators from overriding the wishes of local officials; and more sunshine on complaints against the medical profession. The latter mirrors the complaint process now in effect for the legal profession. Unfortunately, a bill that would implement much the same procedure for complaints against veterinarians continues to be under the thumb of the Senate. While too many good bills are still being held up, we are gratified that billboard interests have been thwarted to date in their efforts to gut local governments' power of enforcement.

But it also should be noted that once again the Senate failed to agree to a reform the House has pushed year after year after year -- shortening the legislative session. That's another one of those reforms that's a little too close to home.