The Legislature this year seemed pretty mild relative to past battles over the hot-button bills targeting alternative lifestyles, public employees and teachers, and the senses of scientists. But this year's 45-day meet didn't completely escape the fire when passions ran deep between lawmakers who felt some of their colleagues were doing too much messing with their bills.

And during the last hours of the session, the feud between Salt Lake County's west and east sides in the Jordan School District boiled over onto the floors of the Senate and the House. The lawmakers representing the district's east side, residing mostly in Sandy and Draper, presented a bill to clarify responsibilities, privileges and asset sharing for each of the two new districts created by last November's ballot initiative that split the old district.

But west-side lawmakers saw a rat hidden in SB71, sponsored by Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights. The bill designated that the two districts would allocate between them the assets from the old district based on the valuation of the assets in October 2007. A general reading of the bill might overlook that little detail, but it would make a significant difference to the schools in the west side's new district.

That October date was just a few weeks before the district approved a $180 million bond sale for school construction and renovations. Much of that bond money already has been earmarked for several projects on the west side, including a new high school for Herriman.

By allocating the assets the district had in 2007, that leaves out the bond, which then would be divided equally by the two districts and leave the west-side district $80 million short of what it already had coming. That would mean the west-side district would have to issue another bond paid by the residents in that district just to cover the projects that already have been approved.

So Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, amended Walker's bill in the House to change the date to the summer of 2009, when the actual split is to take place. Under that scenario, the projects already approved under the bond would keep that money, which means the west side would have $80 million more for projects than it would have under Walker's original bill.

Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, who was carrying Walker's bill in the House, didn't fight Harper's change, assuming it would be taken care of in the Senate. But Walker didn't have the votes in the Senate and veteran Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, led the successful fight to squash Walker's attempt restore the 2007 date.

Walker was not happy, and the bad feeling between the west-side and east-side legislators led to rumors that several of Waddoups' bills were allowed to die in the House as the clock struck midnight as retribution for his having trumped Walker.

Waddoups, however, says he has no knowledge of any effort in the House to punish him and doubts that was the case. "They have a lot of bills to go through and they run out of time before they get to all of them. That's the way it's always worked," he said.

Key representatives in the House also deny there was any organized payback aimed at Waddoups. But the wounds, say legislators on both sides of that issue, will fester for awhile.