The 2007 Hawai'i Legislature folded its tent rather quietly this past week, which was nothing if not appropriate.

This was not a year for loud trumpet blowing and extravagant achievements. Rather it was a matter of shepherding a solid, if not extravagant tax surplus, tinkering around the edges of programs already in place and setting the stage for the next several years.

If one wished to characterize this year's session in terms of human behavior, you'd have to say the Legislature acted as a mature human being, interested in protecting past gains and increasingly concerned about the future.

The metaphor works if you recognize that the Hawai'i Legislature, while the youngest in the nation, is in fact approaching middle age. People in their middle age behave differently that young adults and are also easy to distinguish from their elders.

On the Mainland, many legislatures are treated with humorous indifference, crotchety old-timers with little relevance to what is going on today. The real action is elsewhere, in the cities or in the governor's office.

They have, in effect, aged out of importance.

By contrast, the Hawai'i Legislature has enjoyed a reputation as a hard-driving, innovative and often exciting body, flush with new ideas and a willingness to try something different. This is what one would have expected in a body that was new to the game and eager to get on with the business of building a state largely from scratch.

By now, however, much of the big work has been done. Social standards have been set, a philosophy of strong centralized government with a commitment to an equal sharing of assets has been embedded in the culture of the institution. The work now is primarily refining what has been accomplished, rather than creating new directions.

It's no coincidence that the central theme of the session from the very opening day was "sustainability." This implies a cautious maintenance of what we already have, rather than forging off in new directions.

The fact that the session ended with little specific to point to on the sustainability front is almost beside the point. As a committee report on the new two-year state budget put it, the work this year was to "lay the foundation for a sustainable Hawai'i." Clearly, this shift from growth and innovation to maintaining the status quo won't happen overnight.

That same budget report has other hints of the growing maturity (or middle-aged caution, if you will) of our Legislature.

Government, the budget committee solemnly warned, "cannot be all things to all people."

That's a statement you would not have heard in the early, more rambunctious days of the Hawai'i Legislature.

A further note of mature caution from our budget-writers: while the state has a substantial surplus and all economic projections point to continued, if somewhat more modest growth, they worried that "indications that Hawa'i's economy is slowing provide additional inventive to exercise fiscal conservatism. ... "

Spoken, one might say, like a grownup.

Editor's note: Jerry Burris' column will no longer run on Sundays. Starting this week, it moves to Friday's Hawai'i section.

Reach Jerry Burris at jburris@honoluluadvertiser.com.