Tina Kotek ordered an immediate halt to state employees’ non-essential out-of-state travel and directed agencies to find more ways to cut costs on Tuesday after Oregon’s budget surplus from a few months ago turned into a nearly $375 million shortfall. “I am directing state agencies to begin immediate cost-saving measures and prepare for further reductions,” she said in a statement. Oregon expects to lose about $888 million in revenue over the next two years, in large part because the state tax code automatically aligns with changes to federal tax policy. An earlier analysis Kotek’s office released estimates that cuts to federal programs will cost the state $15 billion over the next decade. This is not what we had planned for, but it is what we must do,” Kotek wrote in her letter to agency directors.