A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities today said predictions of an “imminent fiscal meltdown” by states and governments are exaggerated, according to Bloomberg.

The report said the operating decisions for most states’ fiscal year 2012 forecast are the result of the weak post-recession economy and have been unfairly combined with longer-term issues such as debt, pension obligations and retiree health costs.

“Overheated claims about state and local budget problems not only are inaccurate, but also could lead policy makers to take unwise steps such as allowing states to declare bankruptcy or forcing them to change the way they report their pension liabilities as a condition of issuing tax-exempt bonds,” Iris Lav, a senior adviser with the group, said in a press release.

The report concludes that the confusion between short- and long-term deficits and the overstatement of long-term problems draw attention away from the need to modernize state and local budget systems. States suffer from structural deficits, “or the failure of revenues to grow as quickly as the cost of services during healthy economic times.”

“We’d all be better off addressing these basics of state and local finance than proclaiming a crisis based on exaggerations of imminent threats,” Lav said.

U.S. states confront deficits totaling $140 billion in FY2012, according to a December report from the center.