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The Oregon Legislature adjourned the 2014 session on Friday.

(Harry Esteve/The Oregonian)

SALEM -- The Oregon Legislature called it good on Friday, ending a session that

in Washington County, jump-started a big

and allowed cities to ban -- at least temporarily -- medical marijuana shops.

Other big-ticket and volatile issues such as the

,

, recreational

and expanded liquor sales were left on the cutting room floor.

The 33-day session left some lawmakers frustrated that it was too short to work on complicated or thorny issues, but too long to prevent nearly every lawmaker from trying to get through a pet bill or two.

“We made prudent adjustments to our budget and didn’t break the bank,” said Senate President

, D-Salem. “We passed key public policy legislation in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way with more than 100 unanimous votes in the Senate. We did the job Oregonians said they wanted us to do and did it within the deadlines approved by the voters.”

Not everybody thought so highly of the session, which came nine months before the November elections and attracted plenty of criticism, particularly from minority Republicans, for politicking and churning out campaign fodder.

“Of the 33 days in the Capitol, the majority party spent 32 days playing politics,” said House Minority Leader

, R-Powell Butte. “With less than 24 hours left, Democrats finally revealed their budget to the public and Republican legislators. This is clearly not how Oregonians expected their elected officials to act when they voted for an additional short session to address budget issues and emergencies.”

Before the session even began, legislative leaders sought to lower expectations for big initiatives. So did Gov.

, who spent much of the session deflecting or ignoring a barrage of Republican criticism for the failed health insurance exchange website, Cover Oregon.

Their predictions of modest lawmaking proved correct. Even the final day was low-key, missing the aloha shirts, singing and we-survived-it sense of camaraderie that has marked past sessions.

When the dust settles, the session may become known more for partisan showdowns and political positioning than for substantial achievements.

WHAT FLEW

Land use

-- Lawmakers unanimously approved House Bill 4078, which expanded the Urban Growth Boundary and established urban and rural reserves in Washington County. The compromise measure brought together developers, conservationists and local governments -- all prodded to agree by an Oregon Court of Appeals decision that scuttled a 40-year regional growth plan.

$200 million for OHSU

-- When Nike founder Phil Knight offered Oregon Health & Science University a $500 million donation for cancer research if the university could match it, officials turned to the Legislature for help. The “big ask” as it has been called at the Capitol, was granted, but with a long list of conditions. The state will issue bonds that will allow OHSU to begin recruiting top researchers and planning a new South Waterfront building.

Mascots

-- Oregon public schools will be able to keep Native American mascots if they conform to rules that the Oregon Board of Education will establish under Senate Bill 1509. The board passed a sweeping ban on mascots in 2012. The 2013 Legislature passed a bill installing a loophole in the ban, but Kitzhaber vetoed it. But lawmakers and the governor found common ground this year.

TV taxes

-- The way big broadcasters’ tax bills are calculated will change. Under House Bill 4138, Oregon will tax broadcasters such as NBC and even Netflix based on their in-state sales instead of the size of their audience that resides here. Estimates suggest the bill could raise $900,000.

Cover Oregon fixes

-- Lawmakers passed three bills aimed at helping Oregonians through the botched rollout of the health insurance exchange and avoiding similar disasters. One bill ensured that 4,000 Oregonians in a high-risk insurance pool can continue to receive coverage through the end of March. A second bill extends whistleblower protections to Cover Oregon employees and allows the governor to remove all Cover Oregon board members in a single year. It would also direct Cover Oregon to seek a federal waiver to extend the enrollment deadline by a month to April 30. A third bill requires independent quality assurance reviews for information technology projects that cost more than $5 million and for certain other projects.

WHAT FLOPPED

CRC

-- An effort to revive the Columbia River Crossing as a $2.8 billion Oregon-led project failed to garner support in the Senate. Now that lawmakers have gaveled out, Kitzhaber is expected to declare the project dead. It’s unclear how supporters of the project could revive it, ending more than a decade of work on replacing the Interstate 5 bridge connecting Portland and Vancouver.

Gun control

-- A big crowd gathered in the Legislature in February when lawmakers held a public hearing on Senate Bill 1551, a universal background check measure. But the bill never gained traction in the Senate. Lawmakers tried to find a compromise measure late in the session, but the deal never materialized.

Recreational marijuana

-- Senators were also wary of Senate Bill 1556, which would have asked voters whether the state should legalize recreational marijuana use, and allowed the state to write the rules. Oregon voters still may have the last word, as at least two groups are mounting initiative campaigns to put measures on the November ballot that would make it legal to grow, possess and use pot.

Legal Aid

-- House Bill 4143 divided lawyers and drew strong opposition from business groups -- ultimately failing on the Senate floor. It would have diverted unclaimed class-action damages to Legal Aid instead of returning them to the defendant.

Driver cards

-- The House passed House Bill 4054, which would have rewritten the ballot title for a referendum on the November ballot on whether to grant driver cards to Oregonians who can’t prove they’re here legally. Supporters wanted to give the referendum a better chance of passing, but the bill died in the Senate without a vote after it became apparent it didn’t have enough support to pass.

-- Harry Esteve, Christian Gaston, Yuxing Zheng