States without budgets

Four states closed billions of dollars in budget shortfalls and approved spending plans in the last 24 hours, but legislatures and governors in six states were still far apart on their budgets as the fiscal year began Wednesday (July 1).

Indiana, Mississippi and Delaware averted disruptions in government services by approving budgets in time for the new fiscal year.

Arizona also will escape a shutdown- for now. The Republican-controlled Legislature sent Gov. Jan Brewer (R) a final-hour $8.4 billion budget plan before adjourning Wednesday. Hours later, she ordered lawmakers back to Phoenix on Monday (July 6), saying they needed to fix what she called a "fatally flawed" budget. The spending plan did not contain a temporary sales tax increase proposal the governor had sought to put on the November ballot to avoid painful spending cuts.

“The legislative budget ignores my consistently expressed goals and instead incorporates devastating cuts to education, public safety, and our state’s most vital health services for the frail,” Brewer said in a statement.

States without budgets on the first day of the new fiscal year are Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio. California lawmakers approved a budget in February but falling revenue has knocked it out of balance by $24 billion.

California officials said they will be forced to issue IOUs because they will not have the money to pay all of the state's bills. Pennsylvania and Illinois officials say they will keep essential operations going, but a protracted stalemate could begin affecting day-to-day services in those states in a few weeks.