This report presents an overview and a preliminary analysis of the legislative decisions made during 1989 for the 1990 fiscal year on state tax appropriations for higher education in the 50 states. The data are aggregated from a monthly research report of state tax appropriations for operating expenses of higher education. Following an introduction and retrospective of 1990, an analysis of trends in state higher education support discusses nationwide gains, 2-year gains among the states, and the "megastates" (i.e., those heavily populated states that annually appropriate more than one billion dollars for higher education); a regional view of fiscal year 1990 is also provided. There follows a look at regional and revenue variations among the states, a look at additional considerations and a comparison of higher education finance measures. A table ranks the states for appropriations per capita and per $1,000 personal income. A section called "What the Figures Are Intended To Mean" provides a framework for the collection and presentation of data. The bulk of the publication consists of tables of data for each state. In the main, each table presents appropriations to individual higher education institutions including appropriations for scholarships and sums destined for higher education but appropriated to some other state agency for miscellaneous types of support to institutions or to students. For each table there is not only a column for 1990 but also a column of data for the previous fiscal year which incorporates all revisions provided by the state. (JB)