Wisconsin plans to use part of its $140 million share of the national foreclosure settlement to fill a budget hole. Missouri would devote $40 million for education. Ohio wants to tear down vacant homes.

Ninety percent of the $25 billion settlement announced Feb. 9 goes to borrowers, with states receiving at least $2.66 billion, said Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who helped negotiate the deal. The money for states is to "help fund consumer protection and state foreclosure-protection efforts," according to the National Mortgage Settlement website, though states have discretion in spending, and their tax bases and budgets were hurt by the housing crash, Greenwood said in an e-mail.

Most states, especially those hit hard by foreclosures, probably will spend the money on related purposes instead of priorities that the public may not see as fitting the settlement's spirit, said David Adkins, executive director of the Council of State Governments in Lexington, Kentucky.