States without budgets as key deadline passes

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – States from coast to coast began a new fiscal year Wednesday with no budget plans and with cash quickly running out, sending some to the brink of shutdown and forcing others to furlough workers and cut services.

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency and ordered state offices closed three days a month to save money as the state sank deeper into dysfunction. State officials plan to pay bills with IOUs starting Thursday.

But the pain extends far beyond the West Coast. The governor of Pennsylvania is proposing a 16 percent tax increase. A budget veto by the Illinois governor left the state with no spending plan at all. Indiana barely avoided a shutdown.ULL

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_state_budgets