GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Galveston officials are pleading with state lawmakers to help rescue the island city from dire financial straits nearly four months after Hurricane Ike slammed ashore.

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc on Wednesday painted a bleak economic picture of their city for members of a legislative committee meeting on the island. They told lawmakers that despite a hiring freeze and a 3 percent pay cut for all employees, layoffs are imminent and that property tax revenues will be down by up to 40 percent.

Meanwhile, officials with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston told lawmakers their estimates of damage caused at the state's oldest medical school by Ike have increased from $710 million to more than $1 billion.