Nebraska is seeing yet another federal funding cut to Medicaid this year, forcing lawmakers to reduce services or make up the difference with state dollars before they approve a new budget.

State lawmakers are going down to the wire to negotiate a budget deal, but they haven't even agreed on whether the numbers they're using are real or imaginary.

The pending pension reform proposal in the Illinois legislature means the state would still be left with enormous unfunded pension obligations.

The issue of double dippers has been a vexing one for state government as it has balanced the push for early retirements with the need to provide government services.

Proposal to shore up funds would increase retirement age.

Ohio House Republicans aren't moving forward with a Medicaid expansion, but they kept the door open.

The overall Florida state budget will be roughly $74 billion, but much of that is tied to trust funds and federal cash that lawmakers don't control. This year's $26.9 billion lawmaker-controlled portion of the budget is up from $24.7 billion last year.

The General Assembly's two budget-writing committees, having digested and reviewed Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's two-year nearly $49-billion budget, will offer their own versions of the tax-and-spending package today.

Both bills would keep the current "defined benefit" pension systems. These guarantee retirees a fixed lifetime pension based on a formula using their years of employment and the average of their highest years' salaries.

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.