Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland did today exactly what he didn't want to do but Republicans said he would sooner or later, raise taxes by ending a five-year phased-in set of tax cuts a Republican-controlled legislature passed in 2005.
As if they were following a recipe, House Republicans blasted the first-term Democratic governor for charging struggling Ohio families $850 million, funds that would have come out of the hide of funding for Ohio schools because the Ohio Supreme Court ruled last week that Strickland's move to use his executive powers to put video slot machines at horseracing tracks is subject to referendum, if opponents of Strickland's plans for gambling gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot next year.