Put two items on your list of things for interim committees to do when the legislative session is over. House Ways & Means Chairman Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, says lawmakers will do a full soup-to-nuts review of the state's tax structure after this session of the Legislature. Taxes are dangerous politically right now, but some folks inside and outside the government think one of the biggest problems with the state's finances is a tax architecture that doesn't fit the times. He says they'll look at all the taxes, fees, exemptions, what-nots, and you-name-its. And Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, followed his release of a proposed redistricting map for the State Board of Education with a call for remodeling of that board during the interim. His complaint is with the size of the districts. With 25.1 million people in Texas, each of the 15 SBOE members represents a district with an ideal size of 1,676,371. There are 12 states with populations smaller than that. Solomons thinks they're too big to represent. He doesn't make any suggestions about fixing it, but two come to mind: Increase the size of the board, or replace it with an appointed panel and ditch the big-district elections altogether.

The House is scheduled to take up the full budget on Friday, and members filed more than 400 pages of amendments in advance of that debate. Here's the electronic version.If you're like us (a little bit of a nerd, in other words), you'll want to follow along at home. So we've scanned and uploaded the full set of pre-filed amendments, available here in total, if you want the whole schmear in one document, or in sections, corresponding with the 11 articles in the state budget. The budget itself is available online from the Legislative Budget Board or at this link, and the summary — a long but very useful write-up of what's in the proposal in laudably clear language — is available from that same agency, or at this link. Friday's debate is expected to last into Saturday.

The Texas House started with a $164.5 billion budget and should end up with the same total. But on Friday (and into Saturday) and starting up again this afternoon, they're making little and big changes inside the spending plan.The debate began first thing Friday morning, carried into the first hour of Saturday when lawmakers wrapped up education and social services, and is supposed to resume this afternoon with Article 4. The essentials have remained the same, with an overall plan that's 12.3 percent smaller than the current budget, that leaves public education and health and human services spending short of what it would take to maintain current services, especially given population growth and inflation, and that requires none of the remaining $6 billion in the state's Rainy Day Fund or any new taxes (though it does include $100 million in new fees). Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, characterized it as a draft that will be changed over the next two months. House Speaker Joe Straus emphasized process, telling members, "We need to move this bill." Once it's finally approved, it'll go to a Senate that's on track, at this midpoint, to spend more money than the House. And the reconciliation of those two disparate notions of state government will frame what's left of the legislative session. If they can't find middle ground, it could go into overtime in special sessions after the regular session ends on Memorial Day. The votes on the budget amendments went pretty much the way the Republicans in charge wanted them to go on Friday, just as they did on Thursday, when the House considered two pieces of legislation designed to fill the $4.3 billion deficit in the current budget. The Friday debate focused on three major parts of the state budget: General government, health and human services, and education. Democrats, left after Election Day with fewer than a third of the votes in the House, don't have the juice to make any changes by themselves. That left them with a strategy of voting against the Republicans on most things. And when the majority offered them unpleasant choices — as in a series of amendments that cut family planning dollars and gave the money to autism and other programs Democrats favor — to cast "present, not voting." They were neither for nor against on those issues. For the Democrats, it was a way of disowning a Republican budget. For the Republicans, it was the difference between winning by a 2-to-1 margin and winning by near acclamation. That says something about how the state representatives see the political risks here: If they were worried about future general election contests against Democrats, Republicans would be breaking away from the pack as local politics required. Instead, they ignored the Democrats and stuck to voting in favor of cuts and against more spending. Two votes broke the pattern. One would move $3.5 million from the Texas Commission on the Arts to the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS); it passed by just six votes, 67-61, with Pitts and former House Speaker Tom Craddick among those on the losing side. "It's the right thing to do," said Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview. "I have nothing against the promotion of the arts, but Austin is doing well on its own. It's the music capital of the world, and we put the weak among us, those who are dependent, first." Another would have moved $1.5 million from the governor's film and music marketing budget into state aid for libraries. It failed 79-55, with Pitts again on the losing side. Both of those votes broke the Republican-Democrat pattern that prevailed on most of the votes on budget amendments. Members began working quietly right after the arts vote to bring it up later for reconsideration, but couldn't find enough support to change the outcome. Conservatives successfully raided family planning funds in the budget, stripping money from those programs and sending it to others, including one for autism, another for mental health services for kids and yet another for trauma care. Several of those choices were framed awkwardly for Democrats, who voted "present, not voting" rather than register a choice that had them choosing one favorite program over another. "We don't choose between good and bad," said Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center. "We choose between necessary and necessary." Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, was on the other side of that argument and started the non-voting with this line: "I will not be caught trying to decide whether to fund child one or child two." The debate on education issues lasted six hours. Members took money from the public school system for Texas prisons and put it into community colleges. They turned back an attack on the Texas Education Agency that would have whacked its funding and cut the commissioner's salary to $50,000 from $186,000. "I don't know any of us that go home and say hip hip hooray for the TEA," said Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, the author of that amendment. But after opposition from a fellow Republican, House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler of The Woodlands, the House voted to leave the agency alone. Another from Democrat Harold Dutton of Houston also fell short, after he expressed his vision for the agency as, "one guy and one phone." Democrat Pete Gallego of Alpine tried a front-loading amendment, moving money from the second year of the two-year budget to the first in the hope that the Legislature will find money for the second year before it arrives. That fell far short of being added to the budget. Before the House stopped early Saturday morning, they started a series of votes that, for the first time in the day, split Republicans from Republicans. One debate started a buzz inside and outside the Capitol, when Christian tried to require "family and traditional values centers" at colleges and universities where any state money supports gender and sexuality centers or any "other center for students focused on gay, lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, transsexual, transgender, gender questioning, or any other gender identity issues." That was adopted, overwhelmingly, by a 110-24 margin. The next debate was ugly, when Christian proposed requiring that colleges and universities getting state funds should make sure that at least 10 percent of their courses "provide instruction in Western Civilization." The line formed quickly at the back microphone, where members can question people who are at the chamber's front mike presenting legislation. Christian got flustered in his descriptions of what would and wouldn't qualify as western studies. Asked by Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston, whether that would include African-American or Asian-American studies, Christian suggested the first might belong in African Studies. Miles, who is black, implored him, "Let's take this down, brother." But it went to a vote, with Christian and 26 fellow Republicans voting for it and 108 other House members voting it down. Contributors to this story include Emily Ramshaw, Morgan Smith, and Thanh Tan

No charts go with this week's Inside Intelligence survey — it's all text. We asked the experts what they think of the state's top three leaders so far this legislative session. Who do they think is a standout — positive or negative — and ought to be getting the attention of Paul Burka and the other writers and editors putting together Texas Monthly's biennial list of Best and Worst state legislators? And which of the freshmen in the House and Senate — and there are a lot of freshmen this time — are making names for themselves, for better or for worse?It's a mixed bag. Our full set of verbatim answers is available here. Some samples follow. We're past the halfway point of this session. What's your take on the top leaders — Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and House Speaker Joe Straus? • "Too early to tell." • "Straus - A+... Dewhurst - B +... Perry - D" • "Perry is in his own universe, Dewhurst is workmanlike at best and Straus can't get very far on anything." • "Lt. Gov. Dewhurst is beginning to pull his weight; the others haven't shown up much." • "Has Perry done anything that he wasn't expected to do? Other than give up a little bit more than $3 billion from the Rainy Day Fund, hasn't this been the Rick Perry we were promised? Straus also has to be a pleasant surprise to the Tea Party and radical right-wing forces that opposed him. Straus has played their tune to a T. The Dew...well, the Dew has been the Dew...no leadership and a bit feckless." • "They are 'toeing' the Tea Party line very well, at the expense of 'Joe and Jane' Texan. They are astute politicians, not statesmen." • "Woo. They have huge majorities and still haven't passed Voter ID." • "Perry - another good session and a great launching pad for the national stage... Dewhurst - another good session and a great launching pad for a US Senate campaign... Straus - proved his leadership abilities and solidified his conservative credentials while maintaining his easy going style and allowing the House to conduct its business without a heavy hand." • "Perry is playing politics... Dewhurst has yet to prove he will really confront the crisis but is making goods noises... Straus is still letting the Instant Tea Bunch run the Circus" • "Fortunately, you identified the individuals by name in your questionnaire. Otherwise, I would not have thought to include them in my take on the 'top leaders' at the halfway point this session. See answers to this question under question #2." "What members of the Legislature are stand-outs so far — one way or another? Who should Paul Burka be watching for his biennial Best & Worst list, and why? • "Best will be Dan Branch and John Carona. Worst will be Stef Carter." • "Worst - Riddle, Berman. Paxton, Schwertner... Best - Solomons, Carona, Deuell, West, Shapiro, Eltife... Furniture - Birdwell, Jackson M," • "Good- Madden, Hilderbran, Whitmire, Bad- Martinez-Fischer, Berman, Riddle, Patrick" • "Too early" • "Chairman Zerwas has been courageous and smart about both his state health care exchange bill and the Rainy Day Fund. Rep. Villarreal has had the sharpest message. Chairman Pitts has done a good job in very difficult circumstances." • "Best- Pitts Zerwas and Deuell... Worst- Caraway Schwertner and Riddle" • "Shapiro; Branch" • "Shapiro, Wendy Davis, Royce West" • "Jim Pitts, Steve Ogden, Tommy Williams" • "Best---Will Hartnett; Worst: Byron Cook, Sid Miller, Scott Hochberg" • "Steve Ogden Best Jim Pitts best" • "Best - Ogden, Duncan, Deuell, Huffman, Nichols, Zerwas, Pitts, Villareal, Gallego... Worst - Carona, Patrick, Williams, Smithee, J. Jackson, F. Brown, Miles" The freshman class is huge this year. Who's most promising, and who's not? • "There are a number of freshman that are showing themselves to be leaders, Connie Scott, George Lavender and Lanham Lyne are all in that category." • "Good - Lyne, Larson, Kuempel, Gonzalez... Worst - Schwertner, Huberty, S Carter" • "Way too early." • "Larry Gonzales and Naomi Gonzales" • "Promising- Huberty ... Not- White" • "Reps. James White, Lance Gooden are among the most promising." • "Lance Gooden on the house side deserves some scrutiny for freshman of the Year. Eric Johnson is also getting some good reviews." • "John Kuempel - he's not a nut" • "Most - J. Rodriguez, Aliseda, Davis, Four Price, Gooden, Lozano... Not - Landtroop, Burkett, Perry, Simpson" • "Dan Huberty - a great command of the issues. Hard work and integrity. This will pay huge dividends... Larry Gonzales - sooo much to offer... Jason Isaac - ''white light''. What was he thinking? ... Freshmen against Straus." • "Four Price is most promising. Doc Anderson is the least - wait, he is not a freshman." • "Sen. Birdwell is a serious person, a conservative and has a compelling personal story. He's kept his head down and could be capable of big things in the future."