The state Legislature heads back to work in less than a year. And as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the state’s improving economy won't likely save legislators from the protracted budget battle that awaits them.

Texas cut nearly 8,000 state jobs over the last year, according to a new report from the state auditor's office. Use this interactive to compare how the $15 billion in cuts passed by lawmakers in the last session has affected state-funded organizations within each article of the budget. 

With 2011 winding down, we take a look back at the stories our readers liked best, judging by the number of pageviews they received.

The numbers prove it: State government is shrinking. Many attribute the drop in state jobs to the budget cuts lawmakers passed last legislative session. But agencies had been preparing for the deficit by dropping employees for more than a year.

El Paso's Democratic state representative on the media's portrayal of her hometown, why the grassroots is key to making gains for her party, and why she thinks immigration legislation will hurt Gov. Rick Perry on the campaign trail.

We spent the month of August telling you 31 ways the Legislature's decisions will affect Texans. It's your turn to weigh in. Tell us how the decisions made by lawmakers this session will affect you or someone else you know. 

DAY 29 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: The state has dramatically reduced support for nursing education, meaning Texas will continue to face a critical shortage of registered nurses.

Gov. Rick Perry — touting the state's job growth on the campaign trail — got some bad news this morning: The state's unemployment rate is the worst in nearly a quarter century.  

DAY 7 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: The East Texas Medical Center will downgrade its trauma center in Athens from Level III to Level IV.

DAY 5 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: The Rio Grande Valley’s longest-running helicopter ambulance will be permanently grounded this fall — and state budget cuts were the final straw.

State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, talked Wednesday about the tough battle Democrats waged this session, why she believes the budget outcome is not the success portrayed by the GOP and how this session may affect the next.

Attribute it to a Teflon coating, to his decisive win in a divided primary last year, or to luck, but Gov. Rick Perry is coming out of the 82nd legislative session without many bruises.

Aaronson and Murphy visualize what happened to the nearly 5,800 bills introduced in the 82nd Lege, Aaronson, Hasson and Swicegood interactively recap the budget battle, Aguliar on the surge in illegal re-entry cases prosecuted by the Obama administration, Galbraith on a coal plant that wants a water deal from the LCRA, Grissom interviews a man wrongly imprisoned and nearly executed — twice, Hamilton on a controversial UT regent who wants a do-over in the debate over higher ed reform, Ramshaw on the continuing fight over pre-abortion sonograms, Root on Rick Perry's newsmaking trip to NYC and M. Smith on whether cash-strapped school districts will raise taxes: The best of our best content from June 13 to 17, 2011.

One certain result of the 82nd Legislative Session is that the University of Texas at Austin will lose a signfiicant amount of funding in the 2012-2013 budget. Nathan Bernier of KUT News interviewed UT-Austin President Bill Powers on the effects of that cut and other session-related matters.

At this morning's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story explained why they put Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the Ten Worst list.

We’ve culled the Tribune’s coverage of the budget battle and created an interactive timeline to link readers back to the major developments.

Teachers and parents gathered today at the state Capitol to protest budget cuts to education funding.

State Sen. Wendy Davis' controversial decision to torpedo the 82nd Legislative session with a filibuster has catapulted the Fort Worth Democrat into the spotlight, which she has seized to try to mobilize the state’s downtrodden and outnumbered Democrats.