RICHMOND—More than 1,800 state employees and thousands more at state colleges are being cut and services as diverse as obtaining drivers licenses and liquor will be curbed by $858 million in budget cuts Gov. Mark R. Warner ordered tonight.

The cuts account for about half of a budget shortfall of more than $1.5 billion and are the deepest ever made into Virginia’s workforce of about 100,000 people and the services it provides to citizens and local governments.

Spared deep cuts—at least for now—was funding for public safety, Medicaid and direct aid to public education. Direct state care for the mentally ill in state institutions also escaped cuts, although funding for community-based mental health services did not.

“These decisions have not been easy, and I have not made them lightly,” Warner said in a speech to a statewide TV audience.

“I know this is going to hurt, and that it will have a dramatic impact on many Virginians who depend on state services, on thousands of students in our colleges and universities and on the state employees who will lose their jobs,” he said.

The governor said that equally harsh cuts, including the fundamental alteration or elimination of entire programs or agencies, will be in the proposed budget he presents to legislators Dec. 20.

State law permits Warner to cut up to 15 percent from the budget on his own when the General Assembly is not in session. On average, the reductions for each agency will be nearly 11 percent. Included in the cuts is a reduction of 17 percent for his office and a 20 percent cut in his own $124,855 annual salary.

Those totals, however, don’t include reductions to state institutions of higher education. The cuts range according to institution and include $46.2 million to the state’s community college system, $36 million to Virginia Tech, $32 million to the University of Virginia and $31 million to Virginia Commonwealth University.

Reductions in state support to colleges could produce as many as 4,500 layoffs, but that could be softened substantially by the institutions, which can raise tuitions and other costs of a college degree to offset the loss of state funding.