JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri state parks employees took the hit Monday for the state's lagging state revenue, as about 100 of them were laid off in a cost-cutting move.

The cuts, which are expected to save $6.3 million a year, were made because of plummeting sales tax revenue. Missouri's parks are supported by a tenth-of-a-cent sales tax, and like most state revenues, collections are behind projections.

Before the cuts, the department had 715 employees managing 85 parks and historic sites.

The mass layoffs were the first under Gov. Jay Nixon, but more cuts to state jobs are likely. Nixon earlier this year vetoed $105 million in spending as he looked to balance a state budget suffering from declining revenue in the wake of the recession. He also held back $325 million in spending on other projects, and directed his department heads to propose $60 million in additional cuts.

The Nixon administration says it had cut 1,534 jobs this year before Monday's announcement. Most of those cuts were met by not filling job vacancies, but at least 290 have been layoffs spread over several departments.

But revenue continues to be lower than budget writers had expected, and earlier this month the state had to borrow $150 million from reserves to pay bills. Revenue in the first quarter of the state's fiscal year — which starts in July — was down 10 percent.

State budget director Linda Luebbering said more bad news is on the way.

"The governor has said on numerous occasions we will have to do more cuts," Luebbering said. "There will be positions eliminated; we just don't know the magnitude."

Just last week, Nixon and Vice President Joe Biden were in St. Louis touting the benefits of the federal stimulus in saving state jobs. Much of the millions that Missouri has received was dedicated this year by lawmakers for specific purposes, primarily in making sure that the state didn't make huge cuts to education.

The Legislature and Nixon also have agreed to hold off on spending some of the stimulus money until the next legislative session, at which time the budget situation is expected to be even more dire.

Many of the parks workers found out about the cuts Friday, the same day Nixon fired the former deputy director of the Department of Natural Resources for his role in failing to release a report showing elevated E. coli levels at the Lake of the Ozarks.

An e-mail from the DNR's acting director, Bill Bryan, told supervisors at the department that the cuts were "necessitated by the recession." But the timing is causing some of the laid-off workers to question whether the cuts are related to the E. coli controversy, said Dale Hallett, who worked at the First Missouri State Capitol Historic Site in St. Charles until he got laid off.

"We're suspicious," said Hallett, 40, of Festus, who works as a historical interpreter and tour guide. "It looks like they're just beating DNR up."

The parks cuts also come just a couple of weeks after Nixon told the state's tourism board that he wanted to increase the number of visitors to state parks. That goal will be impossible without state workers to clean up the parks and provide tours and other services, Hallett said.

"If the showers are dirty in the campground, people won't come back," Hallett said. "We're the lifeblood of state parks."

DNR spokesman Travis Ford said the cuts were made purely because of the recession.

"It's strictly economic," Ford said. "The parks system has to balance its budget. Operating in the red is not an option."

Ford said revenue from the sales tax that supports parks decreased 6.2 percent between the fiscal years of 2008 and 2009, dropping from $41 million to $38.6 million. He said the state projects it will take in $36.1 million in the fiscal year that started in July. An equal share from that tax goes to soil erosion. The cuts announced Monday are expected to save about $3.7 million for the rest of the fiscal year.

Ford said the exact number of job cuts won't be known for about three weeks. Because some of the employees are merit employees and have seniority protections, it's possible that some people who were notified of the layoff Monday will keep their jobs.

The cuts also might lead to changes in parks' hours and services, such as tours, that are available, but Ford said those decisions won't be made until the specific layoffs are final.

Virginia Young of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.