It's the busiest time of the year on Beacon Hill. The fiscal year is drawing to an ugly close and the new budget - which weighed in Thursday at nearly $6 billion less than the one approved a year ago - is still being finalized. Billions of dollars in taxes, fees and budget cuts hang in the balance.

That's not all that was hanging in the balance this past week. An ethics reform bill, in the final stage of being written, is supposed to put new limits on the money candidates can raise and give new teeth to the conflict-of-interest watchdogs. A transportation reform bill in the works will merge sprawling agencies, affecting thousands of state workers. More