The implementation of the Common Core State Standards Initiative is forcing states to determine when a “good offer” becomes an offer that cannot be refused. This report will explain the issues, in terms of both finances and fedearlism, surrounding the adoption of the Commone Core.

Gov. Jan Brewer has signed into law an $8.6 billion budget for next fiscal year that includes increases for certain education, public-safety and health programs but also puts $450 million into a "rainy-day fund."

Efforts to seal a budget deal for Oregon's public schools spiraled further into uncertainty Monday when a key spending bill failed on the Senate floor and partisan wrangling continued over public pension costs and possible tax increases.

Wisconsin's proposed two year state budget heads to the full Legislature today. The Assembly will be the first chamber to take up the bill, with the Senate expected to consider the measure later this week.

The House State Government Committee has plans for a hearing on the governor's pension reform proposals Wednesday morning, less than two weeks before lawmakers expect to take heir summer vacations after the state budget deadline, June 30. That leaves little time for lawmakers to enact a major overhaul of the two pension systems.

Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday signed the largest expansion of Arizona’s Medicaid program since its inception a generation ago, ending a fierce five-month legislative battle that drove a wedge through the Republican Party.

With a gross salary of more than $333,000, BART's highest-paid employee last year wasn't its general manager, police chief or a worker who racked up gobs of overtime scrubbing grime from filthy train seats.

It was someone who did no work at all for BART in 2012: Dorothy Dugger, the agency's former general manager who resigned under pressure more than two years ago.

A new study shows that many states could end the current fiscal year with surpluses in their general funds. While that may seem like good news, it's probably too early to get excited. That's because those positive numbers are largely the result of one-time influxes of tax revenue that came when investors sold off assets late last calendar year to avoid higher federal tax rates that came in 2013.

A new California state budget means more money for schools, but the estimated budget surplus of more than $1 billion is causing some controversy over government accountability.

There are persistent fiscal and demographic challenges in most states. The public sector workforce is aging as the baby boom cohort moves towards and into traditional retirement ages. Budgetary pressures at the state and local level make it difficult to increase plan funding and maintain the size of the public sector workforce.

A state consultant says most of the 58,000 people who would qualify for Medicaid under the expansion would either remain insured under private coverage or be able to buy subsidized insurance through a health exchange established by the federal law if the program isn't expanded.

As the state Senate finished voting Saturday on a bill to extend a tax on managed care plans, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told reporters at the back of the room, "That is what's called a supermajority."

While almost all states faced pension funding issues during the recession, none of them are looking at a predicament as severe as in Illinois. Every day it doesn't get fixed, the burden on taxpayers grows larger.

Washington state agencies are working to identify which areas of government will need to cease operations if the Legislature fails to pass a budget over the next 18 days.

Gov. Rick Snyder signed a 2013-14 state budget that doesn't address two of his major priorities - expanded Medicaid coverage and raising more than $1 billion in extra revenues for repair and maintenance of state roads and bridges.

During debates on taxes and spending, rural lawmakers begged to keep job-rich prisons operating.

More states will create hybrid plans in the future because of the less-volatile contribution levels and the fact that the defined contribution components are portable for a workforce that is now increasingly more mobile, according to a new report.

States cannot pretend to be in good financial health unless they tackle pensions.

Michigan joined Indiana as the only other state to halt implementating the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and language arts after Gov. Rick Snyder signed the state's budget Thursday.

The size of unfunded retiree healthcare liabilities varies widely by state. While some states have been making slow progress towards pre-funding these obligations, other have been contributing to them on a pay-as-you-go basis. As a result of the latter approach, combined unfunded liabilities are $425 billion under the most optimistic assumptions.