"What we're looking for is that they followed the established budget processes, that the things that were funded were subject to public scrutiny," said TaxWatch's Robert Weissert.

From alligator marketing to rowing centers, the state budget has millions of dollars aimed at lawmakers' pet projects. The governor has until May 24 to approve or veto them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has put local government officials on notice that it is closely monitoring the way they describe their cities' fiscal health, charging Harrisburg, Pa., with securities fraud for allegedly failing to disclose information on its financial troubles.

The deal, crammed into an obscure Senate budget bill shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, adds another $13.5 million to the state's $10 billion, two-year budget, including $2 million each for the Corrections, Public Health and Human Services, and Commerce departments.

House Speaker Michael Madigan resorted to a rarely-used tactic, calling weekly sessions to laboriously address each and every proposal on dealing with pension reform, debating and voting on each amendment piece by piece.

The Ohio State Senate will spend a lot of time poring over hundreds of smaller policy proposals shoved into the 4,509-page budget bill.

Representatives from California and two other states introduced a bill in Congress on Thursday that would strip states and cities of their right to issue tax-exempt bonds unless they first disclosed the true cost of their pension plans and whether they could pay it.

The many varied uses of tobacco settlement funds illustrate how any state can and will manipulate the budget process. The many ways lawmakers have manipulated this one source of state budget money shows the different ways officials rely on budget gimmicks.

State officials have a deep bag of tricks to "solve" budget gaps but they often keep budgets far from being balanced. This consistent habit of kicking the can down the road has put states in their current fiscal catastrophe. Below are some of the gimmicks on which lawmakers rely, and examples of how states have used them.

As part of Sunshine Week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo launched a website designed to be a one-stop access point for data on local, state and federal governments.

It is well understood that the federal government must make spending cuts-these cuts will most likely drastically change the amount of federal dollars that are allocated to the states. Unfortunately for most states, dependence on federal funding has continually risen since 2008.

Was the slow recovery of the U.S. economy from the trough of the Great Recession anticipated? 

State finances are not transparent and often include hidden liabilities as well as rapidly growing responsibilities which are difficult to control.  While state revenues are gradually recovering from the drastic decline of the Great Recession, they are not growing sufficiently to keep pace with the spending required by Medicaid costs, pensions, and other responsibilities and obligations.  This has resulted in persistent and growing structural deficits in many states which threaten their fiscal sustainability.

In 2008, 175 former Connecticut state employees received pensions worth at least $100,000. That number rose to 299 people in 2009 and is expected to continue rising.

Are students learning the things they need to know? Is there a healthy exchange of ideas? Are trustees upholding the public trust? Are taxpayers getting a good value for their money? These are the kinds of questions to which the people of Minnesota deserve answers. It is the goal of this report card to provide answers and to help Minnesota—a state rightly known for its passion for education—be a national standard bearer for excellence, accountability, and efficiency in higher education.

North Carolina should expand NCOpenBook.gov to provide transaction-level detail updated daily with spending and revenue for all of state government. Each state agency should provide easy access to its transaction information on every page of its website.

North Carolina should define government's role in each policy area. Some policy goals are better achieved by families, charities, or free enterprise.  It should post budget bills online 72 hours before the first vote and provide a five-year fiscal note with each budget.   The state should also expand the rainy day fund to 10 percent of General Fund appropriations in the most recent fiscal year.

Paper proposing 10 reforms that would facilitate funding the South Carolina Retirement System at 100 percent, keeping it solvent beyond 2024. The first nine ideas would streamline the existing system and provide for greater transparency. Adopting these reforms would not require a major overhaul of the existing plan. Reform # 10 looks to long-term changes that must be made to sustain the state’s retirement system.

In Massachusetts, quasi-public agencies perform vital government functions. They employ thousands of people and sometimes control billion- dollar budgets. Because they are not directly accountable to the legislature and exempt from many kinds of public oversight, these agencies should make their decisions and budgets especially open to public scrutiny.

A detailed, comprehensive alternative budgeting plan addressing Illinois' immediate financial problems focused on three key elements: spending reallignment, right-sizing government labor costs and pension fund reform.

Hopefully elected officials in the states will see the benefit of providing their citizens adequate public notice of legislative activity.  This language is being proposed as ALEC model legislation and a vote on it will be taken at the ALEC meeting in Cincinnati on April 29, 2011.

This ALEC model legislation affirms that the government of a state has a duty to affirmatively disclose certain information, in a timely manner, and to shift the burden from citizens and journalists to the state, to share all information necessary, so that citizens may hold their elected officials accountable.