Republicans released their spending plan Friday with hopes of having it out of committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote by the end of the next week.

The Senate budget cut $650 million in spending from the plan passed by the Ohio House Democrats.

Gov. Ted Strickland’s school reform plan suffered several setbacks.

State-mandated all day kindergarten was eliminated. Instead, it was made voluntary for districts.

In an interview with WHIOTV.COM, Widener said the Senate version of the budget was a big improvement over what came to them from the House.

“My personal interests where to see that we were able to maintain the funding for K-12 schools. As you know the Governor’s plan reduced state funding to many schools as he was trying to implement a long-range strategic shift to a new school plan,” Widener said.

The Senate ensured that school districts statewide would not face state funding cuts over the next two years.

“We felt it was important to maintain funding while we try to figure out a way that we can ultimately reduce the reliance on local property taxes,” Widener said.

The Senate schedule called for committee work on the budget bill through Tuesday and a floor vote by the end of next week.

A joint House-Senate Conference Committee will then have three weeks to work out a compromise budget before the July 1 deadline.

Jim.otte@whiotv.com