Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wants a detailed list of the "structurally deficient" bridges in Texas, including their numbers and locations.Dewhurst, in a letter following the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minnesota, asked the Texas Department of Transportation for an inventory of sub-par bridges. He wants an update to TXDOT's "2006 Report on Texas Bridges" that includes the status of maintenance contracts and anticipated dates for repair. In his letter to TXDOT Chairman Ric Williamson, Dewhurst said he hopes to have a report by August 17 — the end of next week. His letter (click on it to download a copy):

Texas lawmakers wrote a state budget that uncharacteristically left $7 billion available but unspent. As it turns out, if all 50 states pooled their money, that Texas stash would account for almost 13 percent of the total cash on hand.

The National Conference of State Legislators' most recent report on state budgets shows most states are ending the fiscal year with less money than they had a year ago. Six states reported a drop in revenue; the rest saw average increases of 4.3 percent, which was more than they expected. Spending grew faster than expected, too, at about 8.8 percent. That increase included one-time expenditures, according to the NCSL report.

As a group, the states increased fees, and taxes on health care and tobacco, while cutting personal income and sales taxes.

The broad conclusion (and it's a preliminary report) is that the states are generally in strong financial shape, but that they're entering a "transition" where year-end balances are dropping.

Some of the numbers aren't what they first appear to be. For instance, the report says public education spending in Texas grew 32 percent from the last budget to this one. That's technically correct, but the increase in state spending matches, for the most part, a similar decrease in local spending. It was a tax deal — not an education deal. NCSL made note of the tax swap, but still attributed the increase in state spending to education. And they didn't put a number on the local cuts.

• A survey done by NCSL found 68 state lawmakers from around the country serve in National Guard or Reserve units. Of that number, 23 are deployed now or have been deployed; four have been deployed more than once. (Three in Texas have been deployed, all from the House: Reps. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, and Rick Noriega, D-Houston; Rep. Juan Garcia III, D-Corpus Christi, is in the Naval Reserve, but hasn't been deployed since his election less than a year ago.)

• One more report from the NCSL convention held this week in Boston says state legislators around the country filed 1,404 immigration measures this year and passed 170 of them into law. The NCSL folks read that as a failure of the federal government: Since Congress didn't pass comprehensive immigration laws, the states were forced to act. The biggest areas of concern — judging from the numbers of bills filed — were employment, ID and driver licenses, and law enforcement.

Tax amnesty, a support award, polling data for free, and a free, online newspaper....

Remember that tax amnesty offer from Comptroller Susan Combs? It's almost over. She announced "Project Fresh Start" earlier this year and said she'd waive penalties and interest on overdue sales, corporate franchise and other taxes if the taxpayers 'fessed up during the 60 days that ends August 15. The deal doesn't apply to people who were already under audit or being assessed. But it applies, she says, to all sorts of sinners: "Eligible taxpayers include those who did not file a required tax return or report; misrepresented, understated or omitted any tax liability on a past report; or erroneously claimed tax credits or tax deductions."

There's a website: www.freshstart.texas.gov.

And there's a hammer, down there at the bottom of that web page: "If you fail to take advantage of this opportunity, you will be responsible for all taxes, penalties and interest. Penalties can be as high as 60 percent of tax due, plus interest."

• The child support division at the Texas Attorney General's office is the best one in the country, according to the National Child Support Enforcement Association. That's run by Alicia Key, a deputy to Attorney General Greg Abbott; the award came after Texas increased collections for child support by $228 million in 2006, to a total of $2.1 billion.

• The Texas Lyceum promised to eventually release the internal numbers in a poll on politics and religion that was done for that leadership group at the beginning of the summer. It's out. You can get all of that data from their website: www.texaslyceum.org. They plan to follow that one with another poll next year.

• The publishers of the Rio Grande Guardian have changed business models, and that online news service is now open to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Steve Taylor, the editor and a former/sometimes member of the Capitol press corps, says they switched from a subscriber-supported publication to an advertising-supported one. That means everybody can look, and that we'll be including their stuff in our clips from here on out.

Public sector employees are older and better educated than their counterparts in the private sector. And as the baby boomers slip out of the workforce, the effect on the public sector will be particularly strong.

That's according to a report done for the Center for State and Local Government Excellence by Stuart Greenfield, a longtime Texas state employee and college instructor. By his reckoning, 45.3 percent of the private sector workforce is between 40 and 61 years old. The corresponding number in the public sector? 64.1 percent in the federal workforce, and 54.3 percent of the state workforce, and 57.2 percent of the local government workforce.

Education? Almost half of all public sector employees have a college diploma, compared to 24.9 percent in the private sector. And only about a quarter of government workers stopped going to school when they got out of high school; that's true for 46 percent of private sector workers.