JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Jay Nixon sliced $204 million from state spending Wednesday by eliminating about 700 government jobs, trimming payments to Medicaid providers, delaying repairs to state buildings and reducing scores of programs.

Nixon, a Democrat, said a sharp decline in tax collections the last three months required that he make the cuts to balance this fiscal year's budget.

"This isn't Washington," he said. "We don't get to print money."

The reductions in the budget, which came on top of $430 million in cuts in July, touched everything from the arts and public television to character education and drug treatment. In some cases, half the year's funding was wiped out.

However, certain areas escaped the ax. Nixon preserved basic aid to public schools, as well as scholarships and funding for colleges and universities. He said those outlays will help build a trained work force.

The governor also exempted from layoffs all prison guards and Highway Patrol or Water Patrol officers. However, vacant prison guard jobs may go unfilled, according to the budget office.

Under Nixon's plan, the budget will balance so long as revenue declines no more than 4 percent for the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Budget Director Linda Luebbering said that revenue goal was "achievable." But she cautioned that there could be more cuts.

Reaction was mixed. Some Republicans said Nixon didn't cut enough, given the 10 percent decline in revenue collections so far this fiscal year.

"I don't believe anyone thinks the Christmas season will be anything to write home about," said House Budget Chairman Allen Icet, R-Wildwood. "That means the governor has to go back in and cut even deeper" in January.

Social services advocates said Nixon should lead an effort to address the revenue problem instead of slashing services.

"Missouri just can't keep doing this," said Amy Blouin, who lobbies for the Missouri Budget Project, which studies the impact of public policy on low-income people. "We're cutting either staff or direct services that families and businesses rely on."

Taking the biggest hit in the latest round: Medicaid, the state and federal program that pays for health care for the poor. Missouri's program covers 865,477 people with disabilities, the elderly and some families with children.

Nixon, who campaigned heavily last year on expanding Medicaid, isn't reducing the number of people eligible for the program. Instead, he plans to save about $32 million by increasing the use of generic drugs and ratcheting down utilization of services and rates paid to hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and in-home care agencies.

Details are not firm. But Nixon and Medicaid officials said Missouri currently pays more than the federal Medicare rate for certain high-tech or specialty services. Those rates will be cut to the Medicare level.

Nixon denied that Medicaid patients would have trouble finding doctors and other specialists as a result of his cuts.

"Moving people toward generic drugs does not cut access," Nixon said. "Moving … toward the Medicare rate does not cut access."

While he largely spared education, Nixon did trim school transportation funding and other school programs, such as character education and Internet-based classes. Nonetheless, educators were relieved.

"In the big picture of things, he left K-12 education funding basically unscathed," said Brent Ghan, spokesman for the Missouri School Boards' Association.

Basic state per-pupil funding, known as the foundation formula, was spared from reductions, Ghan said. "He pledged not to touch that in this round of cuts," Ghan said. "He didn't. And we're really grateful for that. He really has demonstrated his commitment to public education in the state."

The $15.8 million in transportation cuts, however, will hurt some districts, Ghan said.

"We've had a steadily declining percentage of state support for transportation costs in recent years. It's always been a shared responsibility between state and local. But the burden is shifting to local districts."

Arts advocates were equally stoic about their $4.4 million cut.

"We definitely saw that coming," said Kyna Iman, who lobbies for the Missouri Arts Council. In fact, the council already voted to use its surplus to fund the balance of the grants authorized to various entities last summer.

Nixon said his decisions had prevented "massive disruption in services" that is occurring in other states.

"We have protected our priorities: education, health care and jobs."

Nixon also protected his own staff, making no cuts in his core office budget of roughly $2 million. He said his budget had already been cut 5 percent, or $93,596, this year compared with last year.

Other state agencies will shrink under Nixon's plan, which calls for 200 full-time jobs to be eliminated. Officials said a breakdown by department was not ready.

Nixon also is jettisoning 493 part-time positions. The mammoth departments of Social Services and Mental Health will lose the most (183 jobs and 109 jobs, respectively.) Luebbering said that in all, 363 workers will be laid off; the rest are vacancies that will not be filled.

David Hunn of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.