Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

States are facing a great fiscal crisis. At least 41 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year. Over half the states had already cut spending, used reserves, or raised revenues in order to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year — which started July 1 in most states. Now, their budgets have fallen out of balance again. New gaps have opened up in the budgets of at least 31 states plus the District of Columbia just four months after they struggled to close the largest budget shortfalls seen since the recession of 2001. And these problems are expected to continue into next year.

Current estimates are that mid-year gaps total $24.3 billion — 6.6 percent of the budgets of the 29 states that have estimated the size of the gap — but they will almost certainly widen as the continuing economic turmoil causes revenues to come in below estimates in more states.

See if your state made the list

Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In addition, the District of Columbia

My comment: This is really getting bad. Unlike the FED government the states are unable to create money out of thin air. They are also limited on how high they can raise taxes. In addition many states have balanced budget amendments which will force them to cut spending in order to balance their budgets. I am sure at some point the Feds will step in with some funny money and "help" the states out of their self inflicted problems. Again I ask where does the money come from? We are broke so it will have to be borrowed or created out of thin air. This is not dollar positive. I do not even blame the politicians anymore. This is the fault of the citizens who demanded bigger government and more free stuff. The god of democracy has failed and along with it the idea that a person can live off of their neighbor by initiating force through the ballot box.

John Polomny
The Real Deal