A report based on a conference on the impact of cost information on statewide budgeting and planning is presented. The conference was organized around case-study reports on the use of cost information in higher education budgeting in Florida, Indiana, Washington, and Wisconsin. Rather than publishing convention proceedings, the case studies were further investigated. Interviews were conducted with institutional staff, state postsecondary education agency staff, executive budget staff, and legislative staffs in each state, and available documentation on costing and budgeting was collected. Information gathered from these sources and from conference papers was put together to develop a case study of costing and budgeting in each state, with a particular focus on innovationand the requirements expected to characterize the environment for higher education in the 1980s. This report also contains a chapter by Harold L. Enarson on the uses and abuses of cost information. He cautions against overemphasis of the value of cost information. A second chapter by Frank B. Pesci provides an overview of the issues in statewide planning and appropriations processes and the relationship of cost information to these issues from the perspective of a state senator. The final chapter of the report presents the editors' views on cost-driven formulas and attempts to draw conclusions from the case studies. (SW)