NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Many states face gaping budget shortfalls this year, which has government officials scrambling to come up with more money.

Things are so bad for some states that last-ditch measures, such as cutting school field trips, eliminating hot lunches for prison inmates, and paring back public library hours, have become par for the course.

Here are some of the most glaring cutbacks.

Education Giving new meaning to the three-day weekend, states including Oregon, South Dakota and Louisiana have cut the school week down from five to four days. Ohio has cut more than half its school crossing guards.

Oklahoma has eliminated some school bus routes and scaled back field trips and sports. And Oregon has done away with all middle-school sports but track and cut kindergarten to half a day.

Working for free? Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts will work for free for the next four years, as he has donated his salary of $135,000 to the state. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin donates $40,000 of her $140,000 salary to the city, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes home $1 of his $195,000.

Splitting pills In the not-so-distant future, states may consider requiring patients who need antidepressant drugs to get tablets that are twice as strong as they need, then break the pills in half. One state already has implemented such a rule. As of September 2002, Illinois Medicaid began requiring patients on Zoloft to purchase higher-potency pills and cut them in two.

Since 100-mg Zoloft pills cost about the same as 50-mg Zoloft pills, the state will reimburse pharmacies only for the higher dose and trim some $3 million off Illinois' projected $1.4 billion Medicaid drug budget.

Asking for donations To help avert cuts to police and rescue services, Mayor John Brenner of York, Pa., has asked citizens to give $3.32 apiece to the city. The city has received some $85,000 since last month.

Corrections State corrections budgets have seen some drastic cuts this year. Many states have not been able to open new jails, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and others have changed mandatory minimum sentences in order to release prisoners earlier, such as Michigan, Montana and Arkansas.

"Generally, all states across the nation are looking to pare [expenses] off their budgets and corrections are some of the hardest-hit state agencies," said Joe Weedon, manager of government affairs for the American Correctional Association. "This will stick around until the economy recovers, and there's not a lot of optimism that it will recover quickly."

Some correctional facilities, for example, have scaled back their menus. In Denver, they've swapped hot lunches for cold sandwiches and fruit. And only one dessert now is being served to inmates at the Newton Correctional Facility in Newton, Iowa, instead of two. Other food portions are closely monitored, and second helpings aren't allowed.

Libraries Hawaiian libraries will reduce hours to five days a week and discontinue their Bookmobile programs, which provide traveling library services to remote portions of the islands. Californian libraries have cut their budgets for new books.