Rhode Island lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on a new state budget proposal.

$20.3 billion plan OK'd after heated debate.

Republican legislative leaders want to have a budget deal to take to the governor by next week, well in advance of the June 30 deadline.

Funding for public schools and universities is one area preventing Michigan lawmakers from finalizing the state's next budget plan.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan abruptly reversed course, promising to remove a key provision from his pension restructuring bill that would have shifted the "normal" cost of pensions for teachers and university employees from the state to local school districts, universities and community colleges.

Tom Cross, the Republican leader of the IL state House of Representatives, announced that too few House Democrats would support the current form of the legislation so he had agreed with Governor Pat Quinn not to call for a vote on it.

While 40 percent of the money raised from the sale of speciality 9/11 license plates has funded anti-terror training programs, $3 million was raided by Gov. Jerry Brown and his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to plug the state's budget deficit.

A move in Maryland to shrink a large budget gap by shifting millions of dollars in pension costs to counties will help the state's credit quality, but could hurt local governments' financial health, Moody's Investors Service said.

The Illinois General Assembly stands on the verge of passing an historic public pension reform. After many decades of serial underfunding, the legislature and Governor have finally agreed to act.

While the budget for most state agencies were flat and received no increase in state appropriations, the bill did include targeted increases for a handful of state agencies. Overall, the bill represented an increase of more than 3 percent over last year's spending.