State budget dispute appears to be tied more to principle than actual money.

The state would close and privatize a 1,300-bed prison in Ionia and three juvenile detention facilities and make significant cuts to prison support staff under budget bills moving quickly through the Legislature.

Gov. John Kasich, who came into office vowing to curb the influence of special interests on the state budget, blasted House Republicans Wednesday for passing a version of his mid-budget review that includes $30 million in new funding for nursing homes.

Though state revenues are ticking up slightly, the Government Accountability Office's annual report on state and local fiscal health predicts bigger budget gaps than projected this time last year. The primary driver: rising health care costs, particularly in the Medicaid program.

The Louisiana House is debating the merits of letting a private firm replace the state's corrections employees.

The revenue projections on which Gov. Brown based his initial budget are not looking good. In March, there was a shortfall of $233.5 million in revenue, 8.2 percent below projections, according to the state controller.

The Missouri Senate signed off on a $24 billion budget plan early Wednesday that would provide a raise to the lowest-paid state workers in the nation and spare blind residents from a potential cut to their government-funded health care plan.

The reductions are largely driven by lower than expected income tax revenue, which officials told the Revenue Estimating Conference Tuesday were a sign of the lingering impacts of the national recession.

Gov. Matt Mead sent a memo to state agency directors on Friday directing them to prepare for 8-percent budget cuts in the fiscal year that starts July 2013, twice what the Wyoming Legislature had directed state agencies to prepare for earlier this year.

Supporters of expanding a state's role in various areas of the economy, at some point in time, come face to face with the disappointingly political nature of government spending and budgeting practices. The debate about how to use new revenues from California's cap-and-trade law provides an apt example.