The first regular session of the 124th Maine Legislature officially concluded early Saturday morning. And as tired lawmakers cleaned out their desks and headed home, they could look back on a session that produced some significant accomplishments.

Nothing like a crisis to focus the Legislature's attention. The crisis was the state's rapidly plummeting revenues, and the Legislature responded with a budget that reduced state spending by $500 million. It was a painful budget, hammered out over months in large part by a dedicated Appropriations Committee, and it passed with support from both sides of the aisle. Apparently, having few choices produces the kind of grim unanimity not often seen in the Statehouse.

That grimness will go statewide now: The budget cuts will mean a big problem for Maine's municipalities, which will have to grapple with reduced state funding and thus the possibility of having to raise property taxes.

The Legislature finally passed a significant revision of the state's tax code that lowered income taxes and broadened the sales tax. While it wasn't everything we would have liked to see, it was an important start in making our tax system less of a burden for working Mainers. We look forward to further reform in subsequent legislative sessions.

Not all the work at the Statehouse was about dollars and cents. Maine did the right thing and made history as the fifth state to pass legislation legalizing same-sex marriage.

After a strong and relatively respectful debate, the measure passed largely on party lines and, while Gov. John Baldacci signed it, is headed for a people's veto vote in the fall. It promises to be a boisterous debate over the summer.

The insurrection over school consolidation continued in the Statehouse. Lawmakers passed a reprieve on this year's penalties for those districts that haven't consolidated, which was an appropriate measure considering the amount of confusion the incredibly complex mandate has sowed. They sent a repeal measure out to the voters, who will vote in the fall on whether to reject consolidation.

And they passed a worthwhile bill aimed at helping districts cooperate in bulk purchasing -- the kind of innovative, moneysaving work the consolidation bill should have supported in the first place.

Lawmakers weren't interested in innovation when it came to charter schools, however, and continued their stubborn refusal to allow this form of public school to operate in the state. It was a classic case of ignoring their real constituents and bowing to interest groups -- teacher unions and principals -- who feel threatened by the nontraditional institutions.

Energy legislation passed overwhelmingly by lawmakers late in the session charts an ambitious course of conservation and transformation for the state, but paying for it over the long term may prove problematic. The bill consolidates a number of state programs that focus on energy, sets the goal of weatherizing 100 percent of Maine homes and reducing statewide heating fuel consumption by 20 percent and targets future investment in green jobs.

The first two years of the work will be paid for by stimulus funds from the feds, but we're unsure if Maine can actually live up to the legislation's laudable goals without a dedicated source of revenue.

There's not enough money to fix the state's pitted and rutted roads, either. But lawmakers didn't have the stomach to pass a gas tax hike this session to pay for repairs, so they just appropriated enough money to be able to say they did something -- and left town, presumably swerving to avoid some of those potholes on their way home.

The problem is that the money lawmakers authorized will pay for only about 200 miles of road repairs, when about 1,200 miles need fixing. Oh well, they'll deal with that in the next session.

We're pleased to see that of the 2,000 or so bills considered by lawmakers, they rejected a number of duds. The list of killed bills includes a very controversial one to force RVs to use only campgrounds and one to mandate the provision of toilet seat covers in all public rest rooms (Mainers are resourceful and know how to lay toilet paper on the seat).

They also rejected bills to allow non-citizens to vote, to establish the "Maine Academy of Living Treasures," to require candidates for public office to provide proof of citizenship and to give Maine businesses an edge in contract bidding. It's nice when common sense prevails in the Statehouse.

Lots more happened, including a modest bond package that will bring in some matching federal funds and a new way to pay for the Dirigo insurance program.

All in all, painful budget choices were met head-on this session, a controversial piece of social legislation was handled respectfully and some long-overdue tax reform finally passed. There was the usual assortment of good bills and bad, of steps forward and back. But under strong leadership -- Libby Mitchell in the Senate and Hannah Pingree in the House -- that could have polarized the institution with partisanship but instead moved things along with efficiency and dispatch, the first part of the 124th Maine Legislature was one of the more productive, orderly and thoughtful sessions in recent years.

Editorials represent the opinion of the Editorial Board of this newspaper: Publisher John Christie, Executive Editor Eric Conrad and Opinion Page Editor Naomi Schalit.