"It's over!" said Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, at the Eggs and Issues meeting about the 2008 legislative session.

Finally, the legislative members were able to give their breakfasts some attention as they were not asked to speak at the last Eggs and Issues forum of the legislative season on Saturday morning. The forum was sponsored by Intermountain Healthcare.

Most of the high points relative to the session, said Valentine, were actually relative to Utah County.

Utah County received funding for several projects, such as the Thanksgiving Point museum, the Freedom Festival, the Provo airport radar system and especially the reconstruction of Interstate 15.

The reconstruction will stretch approximately 20 miles and consume $2.6 billion, about half of the state bonding capacity.

"Many House members were worried about the magnitude of the project. There was an enormous amount of work to be done," said Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland.

Dougall said that he and others "worked and worked and worked" to sway the votes to fund the project.

"At two o'clock in the afternoon, we wouldn't have had the votes to pass it," Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo said.

The bill did pass however, and Utah County can now look forward to bigger and better roads.

Utah teachers also will be looking forward to a paycheck expansion, as public education received more than 57 percent of the budget's new money, Bramble said. This will include a $1,700 pay raise for teachers.

The Provo airport radar project received $1 million from state funds, and planners also were given permission to use taxes collected from travelers and tourists, said Mayor Lewis Billings.

Billings said that although the total cost of the radar will be about $2 million, with the current funds added to the legislative gift of $1 million the city is only about $200,000 to $250,000 away from reaching its goal.

Congressional hopefuls eagerly took their turn at the podium as they gave the current legislators a break. Candidates included Republicans Joe Ferguson, Jason Chaffetz, David Leavitt and current U.S. Congressman Chris Cannon.