The season just gets better and better, and the best for Iowa is yet to come. Or so they tell us. With a 25-25 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Iowa Senate and the GOP’s thin two-seat margin in the Iowa House, the 2005-2006 General Assembly has an opportunity to set things straight in Iowa and give us all a little of what we want.

Given the acrimonious politics that have marked the last few sessions, it seems too much to hope for. But we’re being told to have faith, to give lawmakers a chance. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal says the even split in the Senate provides “an incredible opportunity to find some common ground.” Republican leader Jeff Lamberti, who will share the Senate president’s post with Democrat Jack Kibbie of Emmetsburg, says, “There’s a lot of room for a significant agenda.”

It sounds great, like a big windfall we can put in the bank.

Unless the Grinch takes over the Statehouse and all the early signs of bipartisan cooperation evaporate in the holiday killjoy’s dust. In which case, we’ll get nothing, unless a lost opportunity counts as something. We might not get some of the hateful politics of the past, but neither will we get much meaningful in the way of reform, just a middle-of-the-road agenda that won’t begin to address the vexing problems facing Iowa.

At the very least, it means Iowans will be able to hold their legislators accountable for their actions and votes. They no longer have at their disposal the convenient excuses of blaming the Republican majority or the Democratic governor for their failure to move Iowa forward. The gridlock is gone, at least in theory, and political battles will be won or lost in the center.

It’s about time. Partisan stubbornness and the all-or-nothing compromises (huh?) of the past have resulted in an anemic economic development fund, an insulting minimum wage, inadequately funded schools and unfriendly English-only legislation Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack was bullied into signing to ward off an attack on reproductive freedom in Iowa and that he now wants to rescind.

Cities, counties and school districts have been handed tax burdens they can’t afford; the mentally ill are still out their fending for themselves and unable to recover the their treatment costs from their health insurance; mandatory sentences are still clogging Iowa’s prison system with non-violent offenders; and environmental reform has been meaningless and has failed to diffuse the stench drifting from Iowa’s heavy concentration of hog lots.

And did I mention the frivolous lawsuits that are all about flexing political muscle and not at all about upholding the Iowa Constitution?

Iowa isn’t alone in this experiment with its bipartisan Legislature. After the November elections, the balance of power evened out in nearly a dozen state legislatures, a signal that America is either moving toward the middle or is bitterly divided. Hopefully, it’s the former and that all the nice talk and resolve for cooperation that punctuated the days before the session opened will extend to the May adjournment.

Beth Dalbey is editorial director for Business Publications Corp. E-mail her at bethdalbey@bpcdm.com.