Gov. Bob Taft acknowledged the severity of Ohio’s budget crisis during his fifth State of the State address Wednesday. Ohio’s budget has a $720-million deficit, prompting expectations of drastic cuts.

To battle the deficit, Taft asked legislators to adopt his budget-balancing package, which included measures such as raising $288 million by accelerating electronically-filed sales-tax collection, raising $160 million by increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol and emptying the remaining $65 million in the rainy day account.

In addition to the various multi-million-dollar cuts, Taft proposed to place a 10-year, $500-million bond issue on the November ballot — an attempt to further Ohio’s Third Frontier Project, which would expand Ohio’s high-tech capacities in education, research, and the work force.

Mercifully spared from budget cuts and tax increases was education, though Taft threatened if his proposal was not enacted by the end of February, he would make cuts to “state aid to schools, higher education, PASSPORT and programs that create jobs in our communities.”

While it cannot be ignored that Taft’s original budget plan will not further draw from an financially crippled educational system, the proposal has its flaws.

Missing from the budget is a source of revenue that could easily have reduced cuts by hundreds of millions of dollars: the legalization of gambling in Ohio.

Since this added revenue was not called for — the prospect of casinos in Ohio is still heavily debated, with little end in sight — money had to be drawn elsewhere, and the worst source was the rainy day account.

The rainy day account, which is meant for financial emergencies, is being tapped. Though there is no argument that Ohio is in a poor financial state, Taft is hypocritical in saying there are no other sources of budget income and at the same time call for a $500-million bond to support one of his potentially beneficial — but not immediately necessary — plans.

At the same time, he said he would make cuts to state aid and higher schools (among other things) if his budget plan is not passed by the end of next month, but does not mention eliminating the bond issue. If Taft is as adamant about improving Ohio’s future and ability to compete in the high-tech market as he claims, he would not threaten to further maim education, whose only purpose is training people for careers which they hopefully will pursue in-state, adding to our economy.

While Taft was at least realistic in analyzing the Ohio’s financial status, he was overly dogmatic to his own causes, and his tunnel-vision made him blind to better options in turning the state’s budget around.