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The Minnesota Legislature adjourned its 1999 session late last night after passing all the biggest items on its to-do list. Lawmakers passed record-breaking tax relief, a big increase in spending on schools, a $1 billion tobacco endowment and - under pressure from Governor Ventura - $60 million for light rail. But the work was not easy. At least twice during the day, deep ideological differences in the House threatened the major bills.

They made it. The Legislature passed all the big bills just before the constitutionally-mandated midnight deadline. Actually, the House was about a minute or two late, but no one's going to hold it against Speaker Steve Sviggum. Given the political cross-currents in the Minnesota House lately, it's a wonder Sviggum got anything passed at all.

On the left, he had to battle House DFLers, who are still sore about being in the minority. When Sviggum needed DFLers' support on a crucial vote in mid-afternoon, they held back for more than two hours. DFL Minority Leader Tom Pugh says his caucus was simply making a point. "We feel as though we've been shut out of the major decision-making process on this floor," Pugh said. "Today we had an opportunity in withholding votes for a time on this bill, to show that we do matter."

Pugh eventually came through with those votes, but only after Sviggum promised to be nicer to the DFL next year - that is, to include more DFLers on conference committees and inside deals.

On the right, Sviggum got flak from members of his own Republican caucus. Some of the more fiscally conservative Republicans think Sviggum agreed to too much new spending in the budget deal with Governor Ventura and the Democrats. They're especially impatient with the $60 million he pledged for light rail in Minneapolis. Some Republicans even voted against the spending projects when Sviggum needed their votes, but they generally kept their criticisms quiet in the name of party unity. Democrats, like former speaker Phil Carruthers, were only too happy to say aloud what the Republicans were thinking. "As I figure it quickly, $1.1 billion of the surplus was not returned to the taxpayers," said Carruthers in a mocking tone on the House floor. "Now I didn't run on that. That wasn't the promise I made, but that was the promise made by your side of the aisle."

This kind of criticism was especially galling to the Republicans since it was the Democrats and Governor Ventura who insisted on setting aside $1 billion of the state's tobacco settlement, instead of giving it back to taxpayers. According to a plan designed 24 hours before the final vote, the billion-dollar endowment would generate interest to pay for three separate funds: one for smoking prevention, one for medical education and one for "local health programs."

But that deal also suffered a close call in the House. Many House members wanted to defeat the endowment and the rest of the health and human services bill because it didn't include certain restrictions on abortion. Opponents of legalized abortion acknowledged that would probably blow up the whole budget deal and cause a special session, but DFL Representative Steve Wenzel of Little Falls said he, for one, welcomed the prospect. "I believe that a special session may well bring back changes for improvement," Wenzel maintained.

The Republican opponents of legalized abortion were less inclined to let the issue derail the whole legislative session. Representative Fran Bradley said for this year, they simply had to admit defeat. "To my pro-life friends: there's been an implication that we didn't work hard," said Bradley in the waning moments of debate on the House floor. "Let me say: we worked vigorously, we worked for hours, we tried everything, we tried trade-offs, we tried intimidation, we tried everything we could, members, we tried everything we could."

Admitting defeat on the abortion issue may end up costing Sviggum and the Republicans in the next election. The powerful anti-abortion group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life is clearly not satisfied with the speaker's performance. Even before the final votes were in, the group distributed a leaflet to reporters that quoted Sviggum promising the MCCL that he and the Republicans would make a stand on anti-abortion issues.

Sviggum acknowledges he's had to pay a price to keep the three-way budget deal together, but he remains characteristically upbeat. "The most important priority was to cut the taxes on every working Minnesotan, significantly and permanently," said Sviggum. "We did that. At what expense? You start weighing the expense of that tax cut, I would tell you that that agenda item is worth a lot."

Things went more smoothly in the Senate, where Democrats enjoy a wider majority. But there, too they had to make compromises. Many DFL senators are smarting over what they consider a tax-relief package slanted toward the rich. Veteran Majority Leader Roger Moe has had a bumpy ride in his on-again, off-again alliance with Governor Ventura. Moe says it's taken time, but he's learning how to deal with the new governor. "His public persona is not the same as his private personality," Moe revealed. "He tends to be a little more blustery and bravado in public and with the media, but when you get him alone in a room and talk issues, he tends to be sensitive and understands what the needs are of people, and he wants to do what's right."

Moe says he's come to this conclusion about Ventura's promise to engage in legislative deal-making. "In reality, what that translates to is, 'I'm like any other person in this position, I have to deal, and I deal.'"

For his part, Ventura seemed confident the budget deal would hold - so much so that he went home at 9 p.m. and left his spokesman to give the upbeat post-game analysis after midnight. The governor has reason to be satisfied, although the dollar amounts are not exactly what he ordered. He did get the general outline of his budget, including pet projects such as light rail, money for smaller elementary-school classes and the tobacco endowment. That's a lot more than most governors have managed to squeeze out of the Legislature on their first try.