DES MOINES - Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday he's looking at possible early-retirement incentives such as continued health insurance coverage to encourage some long-time employees to voluntarily leave state employment.

He said 2,700 out of 20,000 executive-branch employees are eligible to retire.

"We're going to try to be very creative there so those employees that are ready and willing to retire can, with the safety net that they need for things like insurance," he said.

Culver also said union concessions are a vital component in his effort to trim $565 million in spending from executive-branch agencies to achieve a 10 percent across-the-board reduction by next June 30.

He hopes that union agreements to accept unpaid days and benefit reductions will result in fewer than 300 state employees receiving layoff notices as the state struggles through a budget crisis.

He also hopes he and the legislature will be able next session to find ways to streamline, reorganize and improve efficiencies that will amount to "tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars" in savings.

He already has forged a tentative pact with one union that will be up for a ratification vote later this month and is close to a similar agreement with one of the two remaining unions that have held talks with the Culver administration.

"Hopefully, instead of 800 (layoffs), we could be talking about 200 or 300. That would be probably the best-case scenario at this point," Culver said heading into the ratification vote by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees members.

"We've already found savings in other areas, we've already required noncontract-covered employees to take furlough days, we've already found savings and efficiencies in terms of cutting back on travel and other things like that, so this is it. This is our last and best offer to avert laying off 500 or 600 more state employees."