San Francisco  - The state of California will likely have to make deep slashes in public spending after state voters Tuesday rejected a package of measures designed to reduce the budget deficit with taxes and bond offers.

However, deep cuts would have been likely anyway, as the plans rejected in Tuesday's referendum would have only lowered the budget deficit to 15.4 billion dollars, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, quoting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

With the rejection, the state now faces a 21.3-billion-dollar budget hole. The paper reported that the state will now have to consider even deeper cuts to education, public safety and health and human services.

Voters did approve a referendum measure to freeze salaries of senior public officials during budget emergencies.

California has the biggest economy in the United States. If it were its own nation, its gross domestic product would be in the world's top ten.