The Republican-led Legislature adjourned in April without passing a Medicaid budget because members couldn't agree on expansion. And if they don't come up with a solution, the program goes out of existence on July 1.

The House is poised to approve a $28.3 billion spending plan for 2013-14. It would increase funding for basic education by $100 million, provide money to hire 300 state troopers and boost overall spending by 2.1 percent.

Gov. Pat Quinn offered a compromise suggestion today on how to break the impasse on pension reform: combine the dueling plans into one bill and let the courts sort it out.

Is the City of Detroit headed toward bankruptcy? Many expert observers think so. State Budget Solutions' President Bob Williams has weighed in on whether bankruptcy is the right move for Detroit and offers an overview of the municipal bankruptcy process here.

While it's not unusual for the Legislature to delay some decisions and amend the budget later, the unresolved issues on roads and Medicaid are so enormous - amounting to $2.5 billion in new spending - that it can be considered a stretch to say the budget is finished.

Gov. Pat Quinn has called lawmakers back into session to try to deal with the state's unfunded pension obligation. But expectations are low for a resolution, even though Democrats control both chambers and the state's credit rating is taking a beating.

The Kasich administration is in the position of dickering with lawmakers over what shape the program could take while dickering with the federal government on what it would find acceptable.

Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller defends Gov. Mary Fallin's veto this year of a pension bill that the governor says was merely window dressing.

The state Senate passed another budget proposal Saturday, but disagreements with the House over taxes threaten to force a second special session.

While taxpayers dig pension funds out of their massive 2008-09 investment losses, the elected state and city comptrollers who oversee these funds, Thomas DiNapoli and John Liu, have used the public's pension investments to advance positions favored by labor unions and other political special interests.