The business on Beacon Hill is always a mix of political posturing and policy, with it sometimes difficult to know where one leaves off and the other begins. That can be particularly true in an election year.

On Wednesday, Gov. Deval Patrick unveiled his budget for the coming fiscal year. One notable feature of the $28.2 billion spending plan was the governor’s call to put the state’s probation department and its $150 million budget under the executive branch. The department is officially housed under the judicial branch, but much of the real power is wielded by longtime Probation Commissioner John O’Brien, who enjoys tremendous support from the Legislature and remains largely unaccountable for the workings of his department, where costs have soared in recent years.

There is a powerful case to be made for bringing public accountability to probation, which is widely seen as a haven for patronage appointments and has been beset recently by a scandal involving embezzlement charges against a probation clerk. (A dispute is brewing, however, over whether that can best happen with Patrick’s plan or by giving judiciary officials the control they now lack over the department.) The public probably doesn’t care too much about oversight of the probation department. But if the Legislature resists any reform efforts, the subject of dispute could be less important than Patrick’s ability to say he’s continuing his 2006 campaign pledge to try to reform the entrenched ways of doing business in state government.

Patrick laid down another reform marker down with his call this week for pension reform measures that go a good deal beyond those enacted last year. That ball, too, is now in the Legislature’s court.

There appears to be little upside politically, on the other hand, to Patrick’s call this week to restore funding for health care coverage for legal immigrants or to raise taxes on tobacco, candy, and soda. The proposed tax hikes all have a public health argument behind them, but no tax is likely to be well received in the current dismal economic climate.

That became clear one day after Patrick’s budget release, when Speaker Robert DeLeo addressed House members at the start of the new year. DeLeo’s speech only had two real subjects: taxes and jobs. And if there was any doubt, he is dead set against any more of the former and wildly in favor of more of the latter.

After ruling any new taxes off the table, DeLeo talked of the need to do everything possible to support job growth, segueing eventually to a subject near and dear to his heart. “The debate over the destination gaming issue is not a philosophical one. It is about a fight for job creation,” said DeLeo, who has been among the Legislature’s strongest advocates of bringing slot machines to racetracks (two of which happen to be in his Winthrop-based district). The jobs argument is probably the strongest card casino proponents can play, but to say that the question of whether to allow expand gambling is not a philosophical one is dodging a legitimate issue, not engaging it with reasoned argument.

Taxes, jobs, and reform efforts that bring savings and efficiency to state government are likely to be the big themes of the fall campaign. Politicians are often fond of saying good policy makes for good politics. But that’s not always true. There are sound policy moves that don’t always play well politically, just as things that are politically popular don’t necessarily yield the best long-term impact.

Sorting all this out is what will be required of voters who take their job seriously.