Cash-Strapped States Facing Budget Crises, Governors Facing Tough Decisions

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2011 -- President Obama is set to release his budget plan for next year today, setting up a showdown with Republicans calling for drastic spending cuts to bring down the deficit.

Out in the states, though, the rhetoric is less heated and Democrats and Republicans are sounding strikingly similar, with governors from both parties calling for dramatic budget cuts to tackle massive deficits while pledging to not raise taxes.

Twenty-nine new governors were elected last fall and many are facing tough decisions on how to balance their budgets while retaining public services. All told, states face a combined $125 billion deficit, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Almost all the states are required by law to balance their budgets; the federal government is not required to do so.

"The four big things that [governors] spend their money on is education, health care, transportation and public safety. We're seeing pretty big cuts in all of those," said Nicholas Johnson, Director of the State Fiscal Project at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Those cuts are not being well received by Americans. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that while Americans are not calling for increased government spending, they have strong opinions when it comes to cutting those services in order to bring down deficits.

Seventy-nine percent said they would not support cuts for funding for K-12 education, 76 percent are opposed to cuts to health care services and 66 percent said no to cuts to public colleges and universities.

California is facing a $25 billion budget deficit and newly-elected Gov. Jerry Brown has his critics howling in protest over his call for large cuts in Medicaid and higher education.