COLUMBUS — Bigger jackpots are coming to a lottery near you.

        Officials will decide by the end of the year whether Ohioans will plunk down dollars for Powerball or The Big Game.

        As expected, the Ohio House and Senate on Wednesday approved a budget fix designed to cover a $1.5 billion deficit.

        Among the provisions, the bill raises $257 million by requiring the use tax on all cars, light trucks, boats, planes and business equipment to be paid up front, rather than over the life of the lease.

        A portion of the bill authorizes Gov. Bob Taft to put the lottery into a multistate game. That new game should be on the street by June, said Mardele Cohen, spokeswoman for the Ohio Lottery Commission.

        Powerball and The Big Game are the two choices, she said. The commission has talked with Pennsylvania officials about combining lotteries but decided jackpots would not be big enough to warrant the effort, Ms. Cohen said.

        Ohio's falling lottery profits are, in part, a result of being unable to keep up with the jackpots produced by neighboring states, most of whom are involved in Powerball or The Big Game.

        This year alone, nine Powerball winners received more than $27 million each, including four in August who split a $295 million jackpot. A $29 million award from Dec. 1 is unclaimed. Ohio's biggest prize ever was $54 million.

        “Every time we add new population, we're able to pump up the game a bit,” said Charles Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball. “Everybody's profit goes up.”

        Powerball includes 22 states. If Ohio joins, it would be the largest state and a welcome member, Mr. Strutt said.

        The Big Game has seven states, but they are generally bigger than those in Powerball, including Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Georgia. The Big Game handed out a $58 million prize in February and holds the record for largest lottery jackpot, $363 million in May 2000.

        Mr. Taft has pushed for a multistate game as a way to stop falling lottery profits, which peaked at $749 million 1997. Profits last year totaled $637 million — a 15 percent drop in just four years.

        “I think the multistate lottery is merely to stabilize lottery profits over the long term,” Mr. Taft said Wednesday. “We're not going to see a huge new amount of dollars.”

        Alllottery profits are now earmarked for education. But under the bill, additional multistate profits, estimated at $41 million next year, would go to the state's general revenue fund to balance the budget.

        Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, said the state is fully funding education without the extra lottery money.

        “Where are you going to put the money?” he said. “Forty-one million dollars is not going to make that big of an impact on education. We can't put $41 million more into the formula. Fact of the matter is, we've got a hole to fill right now.”

        The budget plan requires formation of a commission to study the effects of gambling in Ohio.

        The Ohio Council of Churches, which has vocally opposed lottery expansion, has said it might sue the state because it's unconstitutional for Ohio to join a multistate game, based on a 1988 attorney general's opinion.

        Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, and other state leaders disagree, saying internal counsel has advised the decision is legally sound.

        “We can't be governed out here by what someone thinks the constitution says,” he said.

        The budget bill imposes $658 million in budget cuts to state agencies and uses rainy day funds and tobacco settlement money.

        It passed the GOP-controlled House 53-45. Six Republicans refused to support the plan out of concerns over the lottery and additional taxes. Rep. Tom Brinkman of Cincinnati was the lone Southwestern Ohio Republican to vote no.

        The bill passed the GOP-controlled Senate 18-14. Three Republicans voted no, including Sen. Scott Nein of Middletown.

        All House and Senate Democrats voted against the bill, criticizing it on a variety of fronts, including a lack of higher education support.

        Mr. Taft, who said he will sign the bill, on Wednesday praised lawmakers for passing the compromise plan, just weeks after criticizing the Senate for lacking courage to make the right decisions.

        “I think there's a lot of courage in the legislators in voting for a tough package,” he said. “We have a fair, balanced plan to close the budget gap that I don't believe will be harmful in any way to the Ohio economy.”

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