The single largest increase by far in the Senate budget plan is an additional $584 million dollars plowed into Medicaid in the upcoming year. Next year, the increase will be $796 million.

According to the report, it's unreasonable for public pension plans to assume an 8-percent rate of return when many economists project lower returns in the future.

"There's nothing more that government can do to help jobs and economic growth than for the Legislature to put a comprehensive public pension bill on my desk by the end of this month," Gov. Pat Quinn said.

Scott's extensive veto list is more than twice as large as his list last year, and his largest since his first year in office. It slashed state spending from $74.5 billion to $74.1 billion.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday immediately started poking holes in a $25 billion state spending plan the House of Representatives approved last week.

House and Senate negotiators settled Friday on a roughly $100 billion state budget. It would reverse most of the historic spending cuts that socked Texas classrooms in 2011, give state employees a modest raise and still afford Republicans the political cover of not busting a cap on state spending.

"What we're looking for is that they followed the established budget processes, that the things that were funded were subject to public scrutiny," said TaxWatch's Robert Weissert.

Dissatisfied with state pension reforms enacted last year that affect 1.8 million current and former government workers, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says without more changes "there will be nothing left at the end of the rainbow" when public employees retire.

A plan to gradually shift ongoing pension costs to state universities and community colleges surfaced in the Illinois House Thursday and could be the model for shifting pension costs for K-12 schools.

Find the latest coverage on state expansion of Medicaid and why SBS President Bob Williams believes expansion it is not the optimal way to ensure the best medical care for states' neediest citizens.