State lawmakers haggled behind closed doors over government pensions, school employee health care and the rules for future budgets as they made one last attempt Monday to avoid pushing their budget repair job into a third special session.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is agreeing to make changes to his proposals to overhaul pension benefits for thousands of state workers, after facing resistance from lawmakers and constitutional questions about some of the ideas.

The House wants to cut funding in key areas such as education and corrections, and the Senate wants increases.

The current special session ends Tuesday. If the supplemental budget is not passed before then, a new special session will be necessary.

Wary state officials are still taking a cautious approach because they know far too well the volatile nature of the oil and gas industry.

The proposed 2013 budget calls for collecting $1.1 billion from motor vehicle customers. Only a third of that, $344 million, would go to pay for services. Nearly half, $540 million, would go to the state general fund.

The General Assembly's 90-day session is scheduled to adjourn at midnight.

Arizona privatized its prison health care system this week. The Department of Corrections awarded a $349 million contract to Wexford Health Sources, Inc. to provide health-care for its approximately 34,000 prisoners for three years.

State budget negotiators reached a deal Thursday on a two-year, $85 billion spending plan.

Gov. Dayton said using state reserves to speed payback now would be fiscally irresponsible.

A major state error has cost cash-strapped counties $206 million, resulted in three resignations and prompted an outside audit of the Indiana Department of Revenue.

Negotiators for the Maryland Senate and House remain at an impasse over the state budget with only four full days remaining before the scheduled end of the General Assembly's 90-day session.

The simmering dispute over how to fix Washington's budget shortfall spilled into the public Wednesday as both sides in the lengthy quest tried to spin public opinion in their favor.

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the state and city have reached "a moment of truth" on the issue of vastly underfunded public employee pensions. "The workers and taxpayers have done everything asked of them," the mayor said. "The people in a responsible position have not."

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee are searching for ways to avoid funding cuts for both higher education and health care services for the blind as they started work on next year's $24 billion budget.

Kansans won't have access to the state judicial system for five days because the Legislature adjourned last week for its annual break without approving a $1.4 million supplemental appropriation for the judicial branch.

The Senate passed its $9.5 billion operating budget, which proposes putting $2 billion into state savings and an additional $1 billion to unfunded liabilities in the state's pension programs.

The Alabama Senate approved legislation Tuesday that will provide an extra $45 million to the prison system to prevent a possible mass release of prisoners and to ease the impact of budget cuts that state agencies are experiencing.

House Democrats are outlining a new budget plan at the Capitol today, but no deal is in sight to end a political impasse that has sent the Legislature into its fourth week of a special session.