By Spencer Hunt
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - An Ohio budget proposal that features a choice between racetrack casinos and an increased state sales tax faces an uncertain future in the General Assembly.

The House's new $48.6 billion two-year spending plan poses a daunting question to voters. Should they keep a 1-cent hike in the state sales tax or put thousands of video slot machines at Ohio's seven racetracks?

The question is so controversial, it may never reach the November ballot. Gov. Bob Taft has promised to veto any slot machine initiative that reaches his desk. Senate Republicans, who will begin work on the budget next week, aren't exactly jumping up to endorse it, either.

"I think we need to start from scratch," said Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a suburban Dayton Republican. "I'm not at all in favor of even putting this on the ballot."

Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester, said he was concerned that video slot machines wouldn't raise as much money as the increased sales tax.

"It's a major problem," White said. "If there's a hole there, we'll have to fill it."

Those comments and others show the House budget plan will face, at the least, scrutiny in the Senate over the next few weeks.

The $48.6 billion measure, which passed 53-46 Wednesday evening, would increase state spending by 9 percent over the current $44.6 billion budget.

Republicans needed help from five Democrats, including Rep. Tyrone Yates, D-Cincinnati, to pass their plan. Fourteen GOP lawmakers, including state Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., R-Mount Lookout, voted no.

Conservative senators said they were disappointed their House colleagues couldn't cut more out of Taft's $49.2 billion plan, which would have increased spending by 10 percent. Both spending measures require billions in new tax revenues.

"They actually had cuts on the table over there, but then it all sort of fell apart," said Sen. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana. "There will be a group of us in the Senate who will say, 'Here is where you need to cut.' "

Just where Republican lawmakers stand on the budget will be determined in days to come. But one hurdle they face is how to account for a big drop-off in revenues between the 1-cent sales tax increase and the slot machine plan.

A penny increase in the state sales tax would raise about $1.2 billion a year. Slot machines would raise about $500 million a year.

Whether Senate Republicans can muster enough votes to pass any type of tax increase is another question.

White couldn't persuade enough of his fellow GOP senators to support a temporary sales tax increase in February to erase a $720 million deficit in the current budget, which expires June 30.

"We had major support for it before, but we came up a little short," White said.

Why House lawmakers included the slot machine ballot question in the bill is another unanswered question. Taft can line-item veto virtually anything in the budget bill.

Lawmakers could put the gambling measure on the ballot by resolution - bypassing Taft altogether.

E-mail shunt@enquirer.com