Strickland opposes slots ballot issue - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Harris, R-Ashland, on Tuesday sent a letter to Strickland that includeds a draft of a joinft resolution to go forward on the vide o slots througha voter-approved constitutional The slots would be installed at up to sevehn locations in the state to be determinecd by the highest bidders, not necessarily at Ohio’w seven horse racing tracks as under Strickland’s The letter and resolution come a day afted Strickland, amid an ongoing stalemate over the state’sw two-year budget cycle begun last Wednesday, calledc a potential ballot initiative “utterly and totallu unacceptable” because, he said, Ohio funding future would be in hands.
Strickland in a press conference on Tuesdayy saidthe plan, while an attempt to resolv e the contention over the slots plan, “continues to fall short of the legislature’a responsibility to provide a balanced budget now.” “We cannot budget a ballot Strickland said. Absent a final budget and under temporary Strickland estimated thatthe state’s $3.2 billiomn deficit is widening by nearly $2 million a day. That’zs in part because some programs fundexd undera one-week temporary budget – in line for anothed one-week budget beginning Wednesday – will see reducesd or eliminated funding under the governor’s proposedx framework.
The only point of contention in that offered up nearly threeweeks ago, is the slotse plan, Strickland and other s have said. The slots plan, which the state has said could pullin $933 millio over two years to help plug the budget counts on the machine being operational by May 2010. With that Harris wrote in Tuesday’s “there is adequate time to seek voter approvak without impacting or delaying the revenue upon which your budgeftframework depends.” Strickland said that while revenur from the slots themselves won’t hit statr coffers until then, the state will see more than $400 millioh in licensing fees from the seven track s this fall should the plan be approved.
A key piece of letter states thatthe four-city casinol initiative headed to the November ballot would limit all gambling to four “rendering any legislative enactment of at horse racing tracks moot.” “Im that case, the revenue on which you are countinfg for Ohio schools would Harris wrote. Strickland said Tuesday that the proposerd amendment forthe $1 billionm casino plan doesn’t tie his hands on the videi slot machine plan instead, he said it strengthens his A piece of the casino amendmenty states that the plan will have no effect on activitiezs authorized under the lottery and bingo sections of the Ohio Legislative approval of the video slots plan woul be an expansion of the