Ah, but you underestimate those sly devils who weave their handiwork in the Republican caucuses and may, at this point, feel they have had the last laugh after all.

Don't look now, but an omnibus tax bill that lumped numerous pieces of legislation together under the title "Tax Changes" is being dubbed by its opponents as a "mini voucher bill." Among the provisions implemented in this multiheaded Hydra - known as House Bill 359, Third Substitute - is the imposition of a flat tax and elimination of graduated income-tax brackets - a proposal that didn't look like it would pass on its own merits early in this year's general session.

The omnibus bill includes two other proposals that take a combined $25 million from the education fund and transfer it to transportation projects. In effect, it puts more money in the hands of those in the highest income brackets that they can use for private school tuition, and squirrels money away from public education.

"It's a limited version of vouchers," says Lisa Watts Baskin, a tax attorney who is part of a coalition that is trying to get an initiative on the ballot that would repeal the flat-tax portion of HB359.

"This (omnibus bill) is an abuse of legislative power and process," Baskin says, noting that the flat-tax provision actually increases the tax liability for those with moderate incomes, while cutting the amount paid by the rich.

What feeds the suspicion that legislative leaders deliberately snookered the public, says Baskin, is the fact that the flat-tax bill was shuffled off to the Senate Rules Committee and remained buried there for three weeks. Then it quietly re-emerged attached to the multifaceted HB359, which was passed in the final hours of the session.

What that means, of course, is that the flat tax, as well as the other provisions of HB359, got little or no vetting in any kind of public setting. The other provisions of HB359 include tax credits to employers who provide health care benefits to employees, an 0.5 percent boost of the sales tax, and an extension of the sunset date for renewable energy projects.

The all-encompassing tax bill was one of two "omnibus" bills that lumped together several pieces of legislation that could not stand on their own and were hidden from the public until the final bell rang on the session.

The justly maligned Senate Bill 2, the omnibus education bill, provided cover for three bills that failed on their own merits but were resurrected, apparently to satisfy certain special interests and/or to slake the blood-lust of legislators who remain irked at those "uppity" education types who goaded the public into killing their precious voucher law.

One piece of the omnibus education bill that was defeated as a stand-alone bill forces local school districts to supplement the revenues of state-run charter schools from their property-tax base instead of the Legislature drawing that cash from the general school fund. It's a two-fer for the elephants at the Capitol, creating havoc with the districts' discretionary funding tools, and giving them a sharp slap for opposing vouchers.

A second drive-by included in SB2 is a $3.2 million appropriation to provide software instruction for preschoolers in their homes - a valentine to the private Waterford School, which just happens to provide such a service, and whose lobbyist was former Senate president and all-around good-old-boy Cap Ferry.

The third blast, which also will cost taxpayers, is a bonus program for math and science teachers. It will be administered by the Department of Human Resources Management rather than the State School Board - the enemy in the minds of some pro-voucher legislators. The DHRM was granted $300,000 to do the job, which the State Office of Education could have done for free.