This number is more than $600 million below the budget surplus earlier this year.

Jay Nixon pledged during his campaign that he would restore Medicaid cuts from 2005 reducing health care coverage. This combined with a promise to expand scholarship opportunities for students was supposed to cost about $326 million.

Back in June, this goal seemed reasonable when the state had a $281 million surplus. However, in the last six months, the budget has dropped to a deficit of $342 million. This means that since June, estimated general revenues dropped by $623 million.

Jay Nixon released a statement today following the announcement of these figures.

"The economic challenges we face are historic, and in order to solve them, we need a historic bi-partisan effort...working together, we will create new jobs...and make our ends meet. But in doing so, we'll live within our means and create a government that is more efficient and responsive," Nixon said in the statement.

State Representative Chris Kelly agrees with Nixon that there will have to be cuts, and they must be bi-partisan.

But Kelly says, "No matter how bad the economy gets, it will be less bad in mid-Missouri because of the presence of the university and the state government."