Strickland's first budget proposals unveiled

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Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D-Lisbon)

COLUMBUS — The state would use funds generated from a decrease in evaporation allowances claimed by gasoline wholesalers to boost transportation and public safety budgets, Gov. Ted Strickland says.

The proposal and another calling for a major reassessment of the criteria used to select major road projects that

receive state funding are included in budgets for the Ohio Department of Transportation ad the Ohio Department of

Public Safety.

A bill outlining both — the first budget documents of the new administration — was presented by Strickland to the

General Assembly today and will be discussed by the House Finance and Appropriations Committee Thursday.

"I am sending a clear message about our priorities to all the people of Ohio," Strickland said during an afternoon

press conference. "This budget defines and funds our priorities and implements our plans to turn around Ohio in

a fiscally responsible manner."

The budgets outline nearly $8 billion in spending — $3.9 billion for fiscal 2008 and $3.8 billion for '09 — for the

coming biennium. About 80 percent of those totals will go to the Ohio Department of Transportation, with the

remainder devoted to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, according to the governor's office.

The bill calls for a "top-to-bottom reassessment" of major new construction projects and criteria used in determining

those projects by the Transportation Review Advisory Council.

Strickland last week voiced concern about TRAC (online at www.dot.state.oh.us/trac), which was created by lawmakers

about 10 years ago to oversee funding of major transportation projects. He told attendees at a newspaper convention that the council has made commitments to community road projects without adequate finances to cover the costs.