In a briefing April 14, Senators the last five days will be spent working out final spending details and considering Gov. Sarah Palin's cabinet and board appointees.

They do not expect a long list of bills Sunday, the deadline to adjourn. Voters who believe lawmakers govern best when they govern least should be pleased, said Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage.

In the last week of the session, as often happens, a number of bills that had slumbered through the session showed new life. A bill by House Speaker Mike Chenault that would allow investments by the Permanent Fund in a "bullet line," bringing natural gas from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska, sprang to life April 14 amid attempts to combine it with another bill expanding the authority of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority to develop in-state gas systems.

Legislation that would increase the state minimum wage, extend a suspension of the state motor fuel tax and extend a higher "ceiling" on Power Cost Equalization residential electricity subsidies in small communities around the state were in the mix of bills being pushed in the final days.

"I don't think the vast majority of Alaska voters are going to be disappointed with our performance this year, if we get the basics done," Ellis said. "This is a back-to-basics session with operating, capital and stimulus money."

A climactic moment was Thursday, April 16. Lawmakers were to gather in a joint session to consider appointments, including Attorney General-designee Wayne Anthony Ross. He faced opposition for his stance against a subsistence hunting and fishing preferences for rural Alaskans, and for linking homosexuality with words such as "immoral" and "perversion" in a 1993 letter printed by the Alaska Bar Association newsletter.

Also, sport fishing representatives assembled in Juneau to oppose the appointment of Brent Johnson to the Board of Fisheries, claiming his ties to commercial fishing will tip the balance toward them in allocation decisions.

But senators said much of the heavy lifting for the session has already been done - sorting out money issues.

Lawmakers had the usual job of building budgets for services and construction projects. It was complicated by falling crude oil prices and a need to dip into savings. Then came a sudden gush of federal money courtesy of the president's stimulus package.

"It was the trifecta," Ellis said. "It was sort of confusing and disorienting to the Legislature to have budget constraints from the relatively low commodity price for crude and then have federal government tax dollars coming at us in a torrent."

The Senate and House Finance committees gathered in January knowing there would be a huge potential draw on state savings accounts, said Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka. The stimulus money followed and sorting out the details consumed an immense amount of time, Stedman said.

An overriding theme has been careful review of new legislation to see how much it would cost, Ellis and Stedman said.

"Oil price tempered a lot of legislators' enthusiasm for new programs, or expansions of programs," Ellis said.

As of April 13, new or expanded programs have added just $3 million to the budget on the Senate side, a figure Stedman called "very low."

"I think as long as we're in a position where we're drawing out a billion, possibly a billion and a half a year, out of our savings, or out of our reserves, I think you're going to see the finance committees of both bodies be very cautious about adding to the drain on the treasury," he said.

Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said budget matters narrowed what could be considered in a session already constrained by a 90-day limit approved by voters. He watched committee chairmen limit comments from the public to a couple of minutes each. An aide at a Resources Committee meeting suggested cutting that to one minute as people lined up to comment on Johnson, Palin's nominee for the Fish Board.

"You can't do justice to anybody's thought process in one minute," he said. "So I found it a little difficult. It has reduced public input."

Palin herself ran into time constraints for her priorities, Ellis said. Her bill to consolidate Railbelt utilities was introduced in March. Legislative leaders told her it could not be rushed through.

"She didn't throw a fit over that or do a Murkowski bully routine of trying to muscle things through that people had not gotten comfortable with," Ellis said. "So that was an example of good communication that I think will pay off next year. But not yet this year."

Bills not passed in 2009 carry over to next year. Lawmakers said they will try to do more over the interim, but they acknowledged that with money matters taking up so much time, they will face a full plate in 2010 that could include the utilities plan, in-state gas pipeline, a natural gas tax and the continuing dilemma of how to pay for government in a time of diminishing income.

"It's going to be very difficult," Stevens said.

Journal reporter Tim Bradner contributed to this article.