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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - After years of opposition to the expansion of gambling, Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday announced a plan for slot machines at seven horse racing tracks as a way to help balance the state budget.

Strickland, a Democrat, said he stared into the face of painful cuts — particularly cuts to a state prison system already 32 percent above capacity — to erase a $3.2 billion budget deficit and decided that the expansion of gambling was the best option among a host of painful choices.

"This has been a difficult choice for me but I believe a necessary one," said Strickland, who said a "conservative" estimate found the gambling expansion would bring in net revenue of $765 million to the state, whose budget is about $54 billion. "It is contrary to what I ever thought I would have to do."

The choice was particularly difficult for Strickland because he endorsed establishing the slots through legislative action and not through a vote of the people, who have shot down gambling initiatives four times in the past 20 years. The governor said legislative action was required to provide revenue quickly enough to avoid a tax increase.

Strickland said he's still opposed to a plan to put an amendment on the November general election ballot to establish casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

Gambling opponents, including the conservative-leaning Ohio Roundtable, were quick to respond to Strickland's racetracks proposal.

"Difficult economic times do not give the governor a free pass to trash the Constitution and the results of four statewide elections," the public policy group said in a statement. "The Roundtable calls upon the Ohio Legislature to defend the Ohio Constitution and the votes of the vast majority of Ohioans who stand clearly opposed to the expansion of slot machine gambling in Ohio."

The state Constitution restricts gambling. But the Ohio State Racing Commission, which has pushed for the slots proposal as a way to generate revenue and save a flagging industry, has said lottery-run slots won't violate the Constitution — a position with which Strickland agrees.

Racetrack owners have said that Ohio's industry is at a disadvantage because neighboring states subsidize their purse winnings with proceeds from casinos or from slot machines at the racetracks.

The governor's reversal on slot machines helps solve a piece of the puzzle confronting lawmakers negotiating the two-year budget plan.

However, Senate President Bill Harris, a Republican, has said he opposed any expansion of gambling without the approval of voters. House Speaker Armond Budish, a Democrat, has long been the most open of the three leaders in state government to gambling initiatives and praised Strickland's announcement in a statement as a move that "will help save Ohio jobs and avoid detrimental tax increases on Ohio families."

Strickland's gambling proposal was just one facet of a budget framework he's providing to lawmakers attempting to reach a budget deal by July 1. The framework is a break in precedent as the governor generally permits legislative negotiators to work out the details of the state spending plan once the governor introduces his proposed budget months before.

Republican lawmakers have been calling on Strickland to say what he would accept in a budget proposal.

The governor's plan preserves funding for his school-funding proposal and for the continuation of a tuition freeze for a third year at the state's four-year colleges and universities.

Strickland's plan includes $1.3 billion in state agency spending, $770 million in cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor and a cut from 14 percent to 8 percent in the state share of contributions to the Publ

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20090619&id=10039633