Budget shortfall worse than expected

RALEIGH As the economy worsens, state revenues have also fallen. Numbers for the first five months of the fiscal year show the dollars coming in are $520 million below what lawmakers projected when they wrote the state budget.

That's 6.1 percent below the forecast of $7.2 billion.

The numbers show the economic forecast is just getting worse. Revenues were only 5 percent below projections last month.

Gov. Mike Easley has already asked state departments to prepare for budget cuts.