It’s the time of year when weirdness prevails at the Oregon Capitol. Bills are enduring resurrection, death and transformation. Bills are being shipped among committees so they can be stripped of their original content and used for new legislation.

Weary legislators are forgetting which way they intend to vote on a bill and what they wanted to say. Soon, their floor speeches will be condensed to simply, “Good bill, should pass.”

And tempers are getting shorter.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, have been banging their gavels more often to enforce legislative rules about decorum and time limits for speeches. Kotek sternly reminded House members this week that they are to face the presiding officer (usually her or President Pro Tempore Paul Holvey, D-Eugene) and address the presiding officer during floor debates instead of focusing their remarks in the direction of a previous speaker.

Still, some first-time legislators say they’ve been told that the Capitol atmosphere is less divisive than two years ago.

• Heading for the door: The 2017 Legislature is less than two-and-a-half weeks away from adjournment. Some optimists — or maybe they’re pessimists, given what might be left undone — think the Legislature could adjourn next week.

That won’t happen before Tuesday. The Oregon House Democrats, who stalled in hopes of achieving a tax increase before then, set June 27 as the date to consider the state schools budget for 2017-19. The Oregon Senate approved the budget at $8.2 billion, but some legislators want more.

The House could have passed the education budget and added more money later if tax increases passed. That would have provided some certainty for school districts. However, that also would have eased the pressure for corporate tax increases — which now seem dead, anyway.

In any case, this Legislature is doing better than Washington’s, which this week began its third special session after failing to agree on a budget during its regular session. In Oregon, Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike say the Legislature will adopt a balanced budget no later than July 10, the constitutional deadline for adjournment.

• Everything is topsy-turvy – or turvy-topsy: Monday morning began with the Joint Committee on Tax Reform continuing its quest for a so-called commercial activity tax — a sales tax paid by businesses, which would replace Oregon’s corporate income tax. Last week had been a good week for the tax proposal, with Gov. Kate Brown and some businesses backing it.

By Monday afternoon, that tax appeared dead — for lack of votes — and the committee was talking of boosting the existing corporate tax instead. The committee has no more meetings scheduled, so any tax increase could resurface in the House Revenue Committee instead. Speculation was that it might be easier for Democrats to pass a tax in the House committee than in the larger Senate-House tax reform committee.

But on Thursday, Brown, Kotek and Courtney issued a statement indicating that “structural tax reform” was dead for this year. Brown later said nothing would happen until 2019, because 2018 is an election year.

Eight years ago, public-employee unions successfully campaigned for a corporate tax increase, which businesses opposed. This year, many in the business community called for a short-term boost in corporate taxes instead of enacting the CAT, but unions balked. Brown favored short-term fixes, then switched to backing the CAT and on Thursday said she still supported a temporary tax increase to cover the hole in the 2017-19 budget.

In another twist, House Republican Leader Mike McLane on Tuesday urged the House to go ahead that day with its scheduled vote on the schools budget. On June 6, McLane and other House Republicans had opposed the schools budget in the Joint Ways & Means Committee, saying it was too small.

• The grand un-bargain: In 2013, a tax cut for small businesses was part of the so-called “grand bargain” that then-Gov. J ohn Kitzhaber negotiated with legislative leaders. The bargain culminated in a productive special legislative session. On Wednesday, the House Revenue Committee passed a bill that Republicans said would undo that agreement, effectively raising taxes without going through the supermajority-vote process for tax increases.

Said McLane: “We made an agreement — the same four legislative leaders that are still in this building today — to provide tax relief to middle-class Oregonians and small businesses. That support came in exchange for tax increases to C-corporations and modifications to the senior medical deduction. That was less than four years ago. Sadly, it appears that the word of Democratic leadership has a shelf life.”

• Speaking of Kitzhaber: Federal authorities have ended their investigation of Kitzhaber and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes. No charges will be filed.

Then-Secretary of State Brown became governor in February 2015 after Kitzhaber was hounded from office on ethics allegations. He resigned only weeks into his unprecedented — and unwise? — fourth term as governor.

As of this writing, Brown and Kotek have yet to issue a public statement about the end of the federal inquiry. That silence seems odd, as all played a role in Kitzhaber’s final days as governor.

Courtney issued a short, appropriate statement: “I’m glad to see this long investigation come to a close. Now, Governor Kitzhaber and his family can put this trying time behind them.”

• Backroom dealing: House Republicans provided the one vote needed for Democrats to pass a renewed, increased tax on health care providers. Rest assured that Democrats gave up plenty in return. Apparently no deal was to be made on tax reform, as Republicans remained unified against the commercial activity tax.

• Making new laws: Legislators introduced a shade under 3,000 bills so far during this session. The majority have died or will die in the final days. As of Thursday, Gov. Kate Brown had signed 471 into law.

Dick Hughes has been covering the state’s political scene since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com or follow him at Facebook.com/Hughesisms.