COLUMBUS — The state's already dark fiscal future dimmed even more Thursday when budget officials estimated Ohio will lose $100 million more than expected this fiscal year.

        Gov. Bob Taft ordered state agencies to collectively cut up to $250 million out of this year's budget to lessen the impact. Budget director Tom Johnson said much more needs to be done to balance the state's books.

Gov. Taft

        Updated estimates of declining state income and sales tax revenues show the Ohio Treasury will collect $600 million less than expected this fiscal year and another $500 million less next fiscal year. That will weigh heavily on the two-year state budget plan that will spend $44.9 billion.

        Things could get much worse: The state is waiting to see whether the Ohio Supreme Court will reconsider a school funding decision that could order $2.4 billion in new spending on schools. If the national economy continues to sour, the $1.1 billion deficit could grow.

        “These are very difficult times to make estimates,” Mr. Johnson said.

        The governor ordered most state agencies to cut 6 percent of their planned spending this fiscal year, said spokeswoman Mary Anne Sharkey. Two agencies that imprison adults and juveniles and two that care for the mentally ill and the mentally retarded must cut 3 percent.

        With more than three months of spending behind them, the cuts will amount to slightly more.

        Most agencies will lose 8.5 percent of the money they have left, Mr. Johnson said. Ohio's prisons, youth services, mental health and mental retardation programs will lose about 4.5 percent.

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