A look back at the work

Lawmakers have introduced 1,441 bills during the first half of the 2007 Legislature, an average of nine measures per legislator. About 35 percent, or 502, are dead. The status of some key bills:

What's alive

. Six Republican budget bills created as an alternative to the governor's budget bill

. A $400 per-homeowner property tax rebate

. A refundable $120 income-tax credit for renters

. A $200 million GOP property-tax relief proposal

. Abolishing the death penalty

. Banning picketing at funerals

. A Republican proposal to scrap Montana's utility deregulation laws

. The governor's $138 million school funding proposal

. Requiring teenage girls to notify their parents before undergoing abortions

. Limiting state spending

. Redoing the business equipment tax and increasing the exemption level

. A GOP proposal to give schools $166 million in new money over the next two years

. Funding for all-day kindergarten statewide

. Revamping environmental laws for power plants

. Increasing Indian Education for All funding

. Expanding the state Children's Health Insurance Program

. A $50 million proposal to freeze college tuition for two years

. Regulating so-called "constituency accounts"

. Toughening action against the state's worst sex offenders

. A 3 percent raise for state employees

. Changing Montana's eminent domain laws

. Collecting tax money from out-of-state and corporate tax cheats

. Amending the state constitution to establish a parents' bill of rights

. Changing the state's stream access law

. Helping young workers in high-demand fields pay off student loans

. Two bills rejecting federally approved national identification cards

. Allowing police to stop drivers for not wearing their seat belts

. Banning human cloning research

. Designating a state lullaby

. Eliminating the water adjudication fee passed in 2005

. Establishing a board to compensate ranchers who lose livestock to wolves

. Increasing tax incentives for moviemakers who film in Montana

. Creating Liberty Day in Montana

. Making child seat violations a primary traffic offense

. Extending a state moratorium on specialty hospitals

. Setting up wolf and grizzly bear hunts once the animals' federal protection ends

What's dead

. The governor's budget bill

. Tuition cuts for state university students

. Mandating employee break times

. $200 in annual tax credits per person and credits for small businesses that provide health insurance

. Banning discrimination against gays and lesbians

. Including all school employees in the state health insurance program

. Three bills allowing local governments to institute sales taxes

. Banning or restricting cell phone use while driving

. Two Democratic bills to "reregulate" the state's utilities

. Allowing children who aren't vaccinated for religious reasons to attend state-funded preschools or day-care centers

. A $96 million increase in state funding for schools

. Increasing the amount of marijuana allowed for medical use

. Reimbursing the state poet laureate for travel expenses

. Requiring daytime use of headlights

. Imposing new state regulations on home schooling

. Requiring lawmakers to meet every year

. Cutting income taxes by 3 percent

. Abolishing compulsory school attendance

. Requiring English proficiency to obtain a driver's license

. Allowing school districts - not just the state - to certify teachers

. Requiring the use of wooden baseball bats in baseball games

. Deleting Columbus Day as a state holiday and replacing it with Sept. 11

. Requiring paper towels in public restrooms

. Expanding Class III gambling on American Indian reservations

. Requiring the transferability of university system credits

. Encouraging intellectual diversity in the state university system

. Requiring the use of motorcycle helmets

. Using oil and gas revenue to expand U.S. 2 to four lanes

. Banning the United Nations flag on state property

By The Associated Press