They seem fed up with the constant political gamesmanship of recent years. There seems to be a real desire to cut the Mickey Mouse stuff and get things done.

Time will quickly tell whether my optimism is well-founded. I hope so. It's time we got moving.

THAT'S THE ENDING of a column I wrote at the start of the legislative session that ended on Thursday.

Sounds pretty pathetic now, doesn't it?

But back in January, I actually had good reason -- or so it seemed -- to believe that our General Assembly would not only meet the challenge of tackling the state budget responsibly, but move our state forward on a number of important fronts.

I had been talking to various lawmakers of both chambers and both parties, and had sensed an eagerness to roll up sleeves and take a few risks for the good of South Carolina. There was a new governor, one who did not (at least not yet) have a poisonous relationship with lawmakers. There was an optimism in the air.

Last week, I printed out a copy of my January column -- in which I listed the main areas where I had high hopes -- and scribbled notes in the margins reflecting what had actually happened.

Here is each of those issues, followed in italics by my marginal remarks, plus a little elaboration:

Restructuring Back then, I noted that 10 years after a partial restructuring, voters could still not hold our governor, or anyone else, accountable for the overall direction of government. The fact that Mark Sanford had run on this issue, and that some long-time opponents seemed to be more open to it, was very encouraging.

Groundwork laid for action next year, I wrote last week. I'd feel a lot better if something had actually passed, but the governor is actually pretty well-positioned on this, with key support in both chambers. If there is a downside, it's that the governor held off from pressing on other issues for much of the session, not wanting to endanger his restructuring coalition.

Local governments. "The state still maintains basically a feudal relationship with local governments, with lawmakers calling the shots on concerns that are far better left in the hands of the governments closest to the people," I wrote then. Another Sanford campaign issue.

Momentum in opposite direction. The good news is that none of the awful bills that sought to take away local control in sweeping ways -- such as the one that would have forbade local governments to restrict hog farms via zoning -- made it into law. The bad news is that such efforts were made, while no positive initiatives that would have moved more power closer to the people were even attempted.

School funding equity. We all know that education is job one for South Carolina. And the biggest drawback to our education system is that the quality of education you can get in public schools depends on whether you live in the affluent suburbs or the poor countryside. Finally, there were murmurings about doing something about it.

Bitter laughter. The closest we came to equity is that all schools were hurt, to the extent that the Legislature has the power to hurt them. But the poor districts were hurt most of all, because the wealthy ones can raise property taxes to make up much of the shortfall in state funding. Thus South Carolina's biggest single problem was made worse.

Comprehensive tax and spending reform. A committee had been at work for months on this desperate need.

Dipped toe in the water, and ran screaming. There was some bold talk about increasing sales taxes while cutting property taxes, or increasing the cigarette tax while cutting income taxes -- and even some brave whispering about eliminating some of the least logical sales tax exemptions. But none of it happened. And the study committee that I had pinned hopes on? The only thing that came out of it was a ridiculous promise by lawmakers to set irrational, arbitrary limits on future spending (easy to promise when there's little to spend).

Cigarette tax hike. When the session started, most lawmakers (like most South Carolinians) were for it, and even those who weren't for it said they expected it to pass. There was every reason in the world to expect success.

A pathetic and shameful failure. It would be hard to find a more pristine example of our lawmakers going perversely out of their way to avoid doing something that was simple, obvious, logical, popular and, most of all, the right thing to do.

Campaign finance reform. Another Sanford campaign promise, and GOP legislative leaders, who had been saying for years they wanted it, had their chance.

???!!! Miracle of miracles, they did the right thing. And so did the governor, pulling key players together at the last minute and insisting they follow through on this. Good for all involved.

Bipartisanship. I wrote in January that I had been struck by how many people seemed sincerely committed to "working across all the barriers that had in recent years prevented real progress in this state."

Actually, some tentative moves in this direction. And we could cite good bills on predatory lending and a few other issues as examples of where it paid off. But the session ended with a heavy dose of the usual nastiness, as a routine resolution to come back and consider vetoes fell apart over nothing but petty partisanship.

So much for my notes on a (mostly) wasted session. Like a Cubs fan, I'll have to spend the off season working up some optimism for next year. Here's hoping the enemies of progress don't spend the intervening months corking their bats.