BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to close a $900-million budget shortfall by cutting almost 6,400 state jobs, overhauling the state pension system and privatizing some prisons and health centers.

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater presented the governor's $25.5-billion budget to lawmakers for the first time Thursday morning at a joint legislative hearing. The plan comes in about $61 million less than last year's budget.

"Government can indeed do more with less," Rainwater said.

The budget also preserves funding for higher education at its current levels, assuming each of the programs in the system increase tuition this year.

A key element of the budget is Jindal's pension reform plan, which includes provisions to increase the retirement age to 67 for employees younger than 55, require employees to contribute 3 percentage points more of their paychecks to their retirement, enroll new employees in a 401(k)-style plan and merge two of the state's four retirement systems. The pension plan is expected to free up about $55 million in the state's general fund and $100 million in the higher education system.