HARRISBURG -- With the state facing an increasing fall-off in tax revenue, Gov. Ed Rendell today announced an additional $128 million in spending reductions for fiscal 2008-09, including eliminating raises that had been set for Jan. 1 for 13,000 nonunion state employes. That will bring to $439 million the amount of budget cuts he has made in the past two months.

He expects to save $14.3 million from eliminating the planned longevity raises for managers in public welfare, transportation, corrections, environmental protection and other departments. The average employee will lose a pay increase of $1,800.

He said he also may ask state unions in January to reopen their current four-year contracts as a way to seek additional savings.

He also said he is "asking" 51 employees in the executive branch, including cabinet secretaries, to forego the 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustments they are to get Jan. 1. The governor said he will forgo his own $4,700 increase, which would have put his salary at almost $175,000 a year. That savings is estimated at about $60,000.

For the first five months of the current fiscal year (July-November), the state is $658 million below estimates for tax revenues. Mr. Rendell has said the revenue shortfall could swell to between $1 billion and $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year on June 30 and so spending cuts must be made.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.