States Go Overtime on Budgets, Hurting Programs

Stateline: In a state that fails to approve its budget on time, the residents who feel the effects range from domestic violence victims to teaching aides. This year, an unusually large number of states found themselves having to scramble to ease the damage wrought by “overtime” budgets.

States are up against varying challenges, but most of them face the same overarching problem: slow revenue growth, even years after the end of the Great Recession. Pent-up demand in education and infrastructure, coupled with resistance to tax hikes, has made it even harder to craft spending plans.

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