Governor Chet Culver has sent the Legislature a $6.2 billion proposed state budget for the next fiscal year that cuts spending by more than $87 million from the current year and will likely force significant layoffs of state workers.

Culver told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the budget cut is the largest in decades, and possibly the largest in state history.  Culver's proposed budget is down 1.4 percent from the current year's $6.3 billion budget.

Culver proposes dipping into the state's cash reserves for more than $200 million and borrowing $700 million to be repaid with gambling profits over the next 20 years to pay for recovery from last summer's record flooding and repairing the state's aging infrastructure.