Closing state budget deficits is never easy, but everyone can agree that a one-sided approach that focuses only on cuts won't work. Because reduced funding could decimate public education, health care infrastructure and environmental protections, Legislatures across the country are taking a balanced approach to fiscal policy by raising revenue.

Raising revenue during a recession isn't just possible, it's instrumental to recovery because it maintains jobs, consumer spending, and services that support growth.

A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains these seven components to the balanced approach to state services:

• Efficiency – focusing on the goals of expenditures and whether there are better ways to reach those goals;
• Using all available resources – employing reserves, rainy day funds, and federal fiscal relief funds responsibly and wisely;
• Scrutinizing all spending, not just what is appropriated through the budget – including programmatic expenditures made in the form of tax breaks;
• Improved collections – aggressively seeking taxes due that are not being paid;
• Tax increases – particularly those that have a more positive impact on the economy than spending cuts;
• Prioritization – making careful decisions based on goals and effectiveness when budgets must be cut; and
• Paying close attention to future impact while fixing today’s problems.