WASHINGTON — Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe joined five other states’ executives at the White House on Tuesday morning to press President Barack Obama to keep state needs in mind as he negotiates a broad budget deal.

The group, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, “were all of one mind,” Beebe said, that negotiations on how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff shouldn’t put state budgets and the services state governments provide at risk.

If Obama and Congress don’t reach a deal, economists warn, the economy will shrink as the nation goes over the fiscal cliff - a combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases that are set to go into effect in January.

Beebe, a Democrat, said governors are “willing to not be hypocrites and do our part,” to control spending.

But he and the other governors said they told Obama, who was joined at the meeting by Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, that decisions made in Washington are felt in the states.

“We don’t need cuts at the federal level that merely require tax increases on the state level,” Beebe said as he and the other governors took questions from the press outside of the White House’s West Wing.

Beebe was joined by fellow Democratic governors Jack Markell of Delaware and Mark Dayton of Minnesota and three Republicans, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

As the other governors went to Capitol Hill for meetings with Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Beebe headed back to Arkansas, where he said he had previously arranged meetings with his staff and economic development and higher education officials.

In an interview Tuesday, Beebe said he pressed the president to remember that spending cuts that come as a result of a deal might make states liable for the providing services they can’t afford, unless Congress and the courts revisit statutory and legal mandates. For instance, he said that there is a long history of case law surrounding special education mandates for states that receive federal money.

“If there is a change in their spending,” Beebe said, referring to federal outlays, “there has to be a recognition there is a change in our obligations. We’d like to get some flexibility.”

Beebe, who has pressed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to grant a the state a waiver on some federalregulations on Medicare, the health-care program for the elderly, said Obama and the White House participants “indicated their total willingness to grant a waiver” as long as the goals of the program aren’t ignored.

The governors declined to take sides on the various plans to shrink the federal deficit that have circulated around Washington over the past week.

“Our focus was not to endorse a specific plan,” said Walker, as he stood outside the White House. “We’re not elected to fix all the problems in Washington.”

Beebe similarly declined to opine on how to come to a deal. But he said an agreement must be reached soon so businesses - especially retailers fearful of weak Christmas sales - can operate with some certainty.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 12/05/2012