After three sessions in control of the General Assembly, legislative Democrats are passing more new laws than when Republicans last ran the show. That's true in the sheer number of bills passed and also as a proportion of total bills introduced, according to statistics compiled by the Office of Legislative Legal Services.

"They grow government faster," Senate GOP chief Andy McElhany said today. "The numbers just tell it like it is."

The numbers belie conventional wisdom around the Capitol about how the total number of bills introduced has gone down from 2006 to 2007. That doesn't tell the real story, McElhany says.

While there were 642 bills introduced this year -- down from 726 in 2004, the last year of Republican control -- this year's Democrat-controlled legislature actually passed 474 bills, which is markedly higher than the 433 bills passed in 2004. That means 74 percent of the bills introduced this year passed and were sent to the governor while only 60 percent of all bills introduced in 2004 passed both legislative chambers.

"Maybe the Majority Office is doing a good job of weeding out bills in advance that they  don't want their caucus running," McElhany said. "Clearly, in the end, they are passing more bills and probably adding more laws to the books overall than Republicans did when we were in charge."

He said the numbers underscore a key difference between the parties.

"They tend to take the word 'lawmaker' pretty literally," he quipped. "Republicans, by contrast, believe it isn't just about adding to the thousands of laws on the books but also about turning back unnecessary spending and regulation."

McElhany added, "Given the Democrats' penchant for passing more bills, it's not surprising that they also grew the state budget by $1.5 billion over last year and increased the state bureaucracy by 1,300 positions. Adding laws and growing government tend to go together."