We construct a linear map of into and show it to be an isomorphism just in types A and C. We link this to the difficulty of proving the polynomiality of outside types A and C. It leads to “false degrees” defined by underlying combinatorial structure. These are the true degrees when the bounds in [F. Fauquant-Millet, A. Joseph, Semi-centre de l'algxe8;bre enveloppante d'une sous-algxe8;bre parabolique d'une algxe8;bre de Lie semi-simple, Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (4) 38 (2) (2005) 155–191] coincide and polynomiality ensues. We show that these false degrees always sum to which can fail for the true degrees when they are defined. Finally we prove the Tauvel–Yu conjecture on the index of a parabolic.