JEFFERSON CITY - In his first year as governor, Matt Blunt watched the General Assembly implement his policy priorities with only the rarest of dissonant notes.

Blunt

But as the final chords of the 2006 session faded away last night, Blunt must have felt more like a composer whose three-part symphony was occasionally ignored by the orchestra. While lawmakers worked in harmony to pass some of the governor’s top priorities, they occasionally wandered from his sheet music, striking up their own statutory tune.

It’s been less than two years since the GOP cemented its control of the executive and legislative branches, but veteran Capitol watchers say the divergent priorities of lawmakers and the governor aren’t necessarily surprising.

As the former deputy secretary of the federal Department of Agriculture, Rep. Peter Myers, R-Sikeston, has seen both ends of the executive-legislative divide. Myers cited an old saying: "The governor proposes, and the legislature disposes."

"That’s the way it’s supposed to be," he added. "And we can’t all get what we want."

Myers helped implement one of the governor’s top priorities, a requirement that gasoline sold in Missouri be blended with 10 percent ethanol, although the standard applies only when the price of ethanol-blended fuel is no higher than regular gasoline.

Blunt also won a victory on the tricky issue of eminent domain reform, saw lawmakers act on his call for tougher criminal penalties for sex offenders and won approval of a new tax credit for contributions to pregnancy resource centers.

On other issues, though, lawmakers declined or were unable to take action on the governor’s requests. In November, Blunt called for a state constitutional amendment mandating that every school district spend at least 65 percent of their money on student instruction. The idea earned a frosty reception and made little headway in the legislature.

In a speech to fellow Southern Baptists in October, Blunt called for a trio of bills sought by anti-abortion groups. Two of the three withered, including a measure protecting pharmacists who refuse to dispense the "morning-after" pill.

Asked about his greatest disappointment, the governor yesterday cited the failure of lawmakers to approve legislation allocating money from an asset sale by the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.

Competing plans sprung up quickly and the measure eventually got tangled with a proposal to overhaul Missouri’s system of funding public universities before dying last week. Blunt said he can move ahead without legislative approval, but the MOHELA’s board has called that idea into question.

At any rate, the mixed record stands in contrast to last year. That’s when Blunt not only saw most of his wish list implemented - an anti-abortion package was a rare exception - but even managed to prod lawmakers into actions that had stalled in prior years, including cuts in Medicaid eligibility and a name change for the former Southwest Missouri State University.

Rep. Jeff Harris, a Columbia Democrat and the House minority leader, said that in an election year, GOP lawmakers are recognizing the governor’s agenda is unpopular.

"Frankly, it looks like he doesn’t have a lot of political capital to expend, even in his own party," Harris said.

In fact, Republicans in the legislature were just as likely to be fighting among themselves as disagreeing with Blunt. The session was marked by frustration between House and Senate leaders on the sale of MOHELA assets and other issues.

Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee’s Summit, said that last year - when lawmakers passed new restrictions on injury lawsuits, an overhaul of workers’ compensation and a new funding formula for K-12 education, among other things - was marked by issues that had matured.

"There was a lot of consensus," Bartle said. This year, he said, the legislature dealt with more controversial issues with differing opinions on how to proceed.