INDIANAPOLIS -- State tax revenue is down again, and higher education will bear the brunt of resultant budget cuts, Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday.

Daniels said higher education funding will be cut 6 percent, a reduction of $150 million to the state's colleges and universities, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

The cuts were prompted by more bad news on the fiscal front in November. Tax revenues were way down again -- $140 million below the forecast -- 15 percent below the projection and 8 percent less than the state took in during the same month in 2008.

Daniels said fiscal problems show no sign of abating soon.

"It's only fair to say, given the pattern of 14 straight months now, that it's not very likely that suddenly revenues will jump to catch up with this forecast," Daniels said. "I hope that'll happen over the course of the next few months, but it's not likely to happen immediately."

Daniels decided to hold off, for now, on cuts to K-12 education, but said that it's possible that budget will need to be slashed, too.

Indiana University President Dr. Michael McRobbie said that that IU and Purdue University partially rolled back earlier tuition hikes under pressure from state leaders and they should not bear a disproportionate burden after making sacrifices that others were exempt from making.

"The key thing for us is that we really believe it is essential that Indiana University be treated fairly in this process, and we intend to make that point as often and as consistently as we can," he said.

Daniels defended the cuts by showing examples of states making bigger reductions, like Louisiana's 30 percent cut, Alabama's 13 percent tuition hike and Mississippi's move to consolidate eight schools into five.

However, a study by the National Association of State Budget Officers showed that 20 states are not cutting higher education at all.

Daniels also announced the suspension of matching contributions from the state to its employees' deferred compensation accounts and a new order to reduce the number of state-owned vehicles.