Proceedings of a 10-state 1976 regional conference on the relationship of the state coordinating agency with the executive and legislative divisions of state government in meeting budget needs for higher education systems are presented as part of an inservice education program. The participating states were Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. A speech by Oklahoma's governor David L. Boren addresses the state's funding of education, the need to address the oversupply of teachers, and the potential role that higher education can play in helping to solve community problems. In "The New Game," Richard M. Millard considers changing conditions and their impact on postsecondary educational systems and state government. These trends include declining college enrollments and efforts to develop new student clienteles, the oversupply of college graduates, financial problems, the demand for accountability by the public and state government, the creation or independent fiscal and performance auditing agencies, and a trend to move higher education decision-making directly into the executive and/or legislative branches of state government. In "Educational Program Budgeting in Oklahoma" Edward J. Coyle and Dan S. Hobbs outline the principles, procedures, and processes utilized by the state in the development of institutional needs for educational and general funds. A speech by M. Olin Cook outlines principles that should be assessed when a state creates a coordinating agency to work with the state executive and legislative divisions in meeting budget needs for higher education systems. (SW)