By John McCarthy
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Gov. Bob Taft signed the record $48.8 billion two-year budget Thursday and vetoed 29 sections of it, including an amendment that would have hampered Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's plan to replace most counties' voting systems.

The budget includes a penny-per-dollar sales tax increase that lawmakers say will expire in two years. The increase is expected to raise $2.5 billion in two years. The spending plan includes about $3 billion in tax increases overall.

Taft said he was pleased lawmakers were able to increase income without asking voters whether to put video slot machines at Ohio horse-racing tracks.

"Despite tight economic times, this budget increases spending for primary, secondary and higher education in the next two years without expanding gambling," he said.

Ohioans also will start to pay the sales tax on previously untaxed services, such as renting a storage locker, towing a car and having clothes dry-cleaned.

The state will spend $7.15 billion on schools next year, an increase of about 2.3 percent. The Department of Education said the figure, less than what the governor requested, could force districts to turn to voters for more money.

Taft vetoed an amendment that would have forced Blackwell to ask the federal government to let Ohio delay implementation of the Help America Vote Act until after the 2004 election.

The plan would replace punch-card voting systems in 69 Ohio counties with electronic touch-pad machines or scanners that read cards filled out by voters.

"Delayed compliance with the act would interfere unnecessarily with the timely upgrades that many county voting systems need," Taft said.

It's too early to assess Ohio's compliance with the law, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said. The new systems do not have to be in place until March.

"If we feel we cannot achieve full compliance with the act by the presidential election of 2004, we will ask for a waiver," LoParo said. "We will not give up and acknowledge defeat even before we attempt the reforms."

Taft also vetoed a measure that would have taken $4.2 million from Taft's OhioReads tutoring program and given it to a tutoring program that employs seniors. Another would have expanded the jurisdiction of the state inspector general to the state's public employee retirement systems and the Ohio Historical Society. Taft said those agencies already have oversight boards.