Officials scramble to meet deadline

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio lawmakers were trying Friday to resolve major policy differences to get a state budget deal completed before a Tuesday deadline.

House and Senate negotiators had scheduled work over the weekend as they tried to close a $3.2 billion gap in the two-year, $54 billion spending plan in time to vote on it early next week. A meeting today of the compromise-forging conference committee was canceled Friday, but lawmakers planned to meet Sunday with hopes of hammering out final deals on several big items that remained elusive.

State Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican and one of six lawmakers on the negotiating committee, said “high stakes” items such as a gambling proposal and education debate were being negotiated only by Gov. Ted Strickland, House Speaker Armond Budish and Senate President Bill Harris — the three most powerful officials in state government.

“Some of this stuff is literally being done by the top three and not being shared out,” Amstutz said.

It was still unclear whether the Republican-controlled Senate would give legislative approval to Strickland’s plan to put lottery-run slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks to shave $933 million from the looming deficit.

Harris, an Ashland Republican, has insisted that Strickland has the executive authority without legislative approval to add video lottery terminals to the Ohio Lottery’s menu of games. Strickland authorized adding the bingo-like game Keno in such a manner last year.

There is concern among potential investors in the slot machines, and among the horse-racing industry, that authorizing the slots through executive power wouldn’t provide enough comfort to the gaming industry to make investments when future governors could simply undo the change.

“No one is going to give someone $130 million on a whim and a prayer,” said Tom Zaino, a commissioner with the Ohio State Racing Commission.

Public debate centered on whether Strickland has the legal authority to add the game, but the unspoken controversy involved who would ultimately take the political heat for expanding gambling in the traditionally antigambling state.

“That’s a game of who gets blamed for it,” Amstutz said. “I don’t really care who gets blamed for it because I don’t want to see it at all.”