Strickland sees compromise in his slots plan

Photo

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D-Lisbon)

COLUMBUS (AP) — Onlookers who packed into two Statehouse committee meetings Thursday saw no clear indicators of how Ohio’s week-old budget impasse would end.

The Republican Senate and Democratic House convened competing budget panels, one questioning the specifics of Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposed slots-at-racetracks plan and the other hearing bad news from state agency directors about cuts that may be inevitable without it. The slots committee was scheduled to meet again today, a state holiday.

Strickland, a Democrat, reassured Ohioans at a news conference that progress was being made toward a compromise over the plan, which would place video lottery terminals at seven racetracks to raise $933 million.

Answering a growing chorus of critics, Strickland defended the budget framework he unveiled June 19 as a reasonable mix of state program cuts, creative cost cutting, agency downsizing and new revenues. It aimed to fill a $3.2 billion budget hole.

Strickland did not signal what kind of compromise could possibly resolve the stalemate between him and Senate President Bill Harris, who has refused to bring the slots plan to a vote. Harris has argued that voters, not lawmakers, should approve any expansion of gambling in Ohio.