ProgressOhio

What do these ten states have in common: Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Delaware, Illinois, Ohio, Mississippi, California,  and Connecticut?

All ten were scrambling yesterday to pass state budgets before today’s deadline, reflecting the difficulty state legislatures and governors are having coping with income- and sales-tax collections that continue to run far below already low forecasts.

According to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, personal income-tax collections, which account for about 36% of state revenues, dropped 26% in this year's January-April period. Sales-tax revenues are also down.

As a result, 48 states have a combined revenue shortfall of $166 billion in the coming fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Twenty-five states have raised taxes in 2009, and an additional 12 are considering doing so.

• Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels plans to shut down nonemergency government functions, but will continue to keep troopers on the highways and prisons staffed.
• Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbou said "everyone should agree we have an ox in the ditch.”
• In Arizona, the budget battle is a fight among Republicans. Gov. Jan Brewer wants to ask voters to approve a temporary one-cent increase in the state's sales tax to help cover a $3 billion budget gap.
• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would veto a plan that raises taxes. Meanwhile, the state controller says he will have to make payments using IOUs unless a budget is passed.
• Arizona, Indiana and Mississippi face the possibility of partial shutdowns if a budget is not passed in time.