State Budget, States | featured news

The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren't going to preschool....

College students clash with administrators over steeply rising tuition. Public employees shut down statehouses amid cuts to pay and retirement benefits. Teachers and social welfare advocates protest budget cuts. Lawmakers struggle to cope with sharp declines in tax revenue.

State governments across the country are laying off teachers, closing public libraries and parks, and reducing health care services, but there is one place they could get $23 billion if they could only agree how to do it: Internet retailers such as Amazon.com.

Tax income has been outpacing forecasts — good news as Sacramento struggles with a $15-billion budget deficit. GOP leaders are already using it as fodder against Gov. Brown's proposed tax increases.

As states scramble for revenue sources, a growing number are adding something new advertising on school buses.

In a recession, state lawmakers are taxing personal vices. It’s good for you, they say, but it’s really better for their budgets.

Spurred by budget crises, California and Michigan together reduced their prison populations by more than 7,500 last year, contributing to what a new report says is the first nationwide decline in the number of state inmates since 1972.

States are looking to the federal government for more help balancing their budgets, but the Senate is not heeding their call.

At least 15 states are in various stages of considering or implementing furloughs, with mixed results.