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Gov. John Kasich signs the 2016-2017 state budget into law Tuesday during a ceremony in the Ohio Statehouse. The budget authorizes 130.3 billion in spending over the next two years.

(Robert Higgs, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich signed a $130.3 billion budget bill Tuesday that will govern Ohio's spending the next two years, but not before using his line-item veto to eliminate 44 provisions.

Among the items Kasich eliminated from the spending document were provisions that would have required the Ohio Lottery Commission to add electronic keno and bingo games for bars and restaurants and efforts to limit the authority of the state controlling board -- the panel that cleared the way for Medicaid expansion.

Among the proposals that survived were two new restrictions on the state's seven abortion clinics -- one day after the U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on similar requirements Texas is trying to enact and less than two weeks after a Lucas County judge struck down related language that was in the budget two years ago.

While the abortion rules remained in the budget, Kasich struck down several other provisions that had stirred debate. Among them:

The second year of adjustment for school districts to compensate for lost revenue from the phase out of the tangible personal property tax.

A provision that would have exempted private schools from participating in Ohio's College Credit Plus program.

A provision that could have limited notifications about the release of various substances in the event of an emergency involving oil and gas drilling.

A guarantee of state revenue to wealthier school districts based on their property values.

An item that would have exempted electrical generation plants from the public utility tangible personal property tax, shifting the tax to the transmission and distribution systems.

Projected state spending for the entire budget grows an average of 2 percent each year. That's consistent with previous budget years since Kasich took office, which saw average growth of 2.2 percent a year over four years.

That's lower than the average for the 12 preceding fiscal years -- eight years under Republican Gov. Bob Taft and four years under Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland -- when the average annual growth rate was 4.2 percent.

The budget is a result of nearly five months of debate, public hearings and behind the scenes negotiations that began when the Republican governor unveiled his executive budget proposal Feb. 2.

Along the way, House and Senate Republicans who control the General Assembly scaled back the governor's plan to reduce the income tax by 23 percent and shelved his requests for increases to sales taxes and the state's severance tax on oil and gas drillers. But leaders pledged to review them with a bipartisan panel with members from both chambers.

The GOP-authored budget -- supported by just one Democrat, Rep. Martin Sweeney of Cleveland -- provides a 6.3-percent, across-the-board state income tax cut as well as tax deductions for business owners. That reduces Ohio's income-tax rate from 5.33 percent to 4.99 percent for residents making more than $200,000 per year -- a top rate not seen since 1982, according to lawmakers.

The tax breaks are paid for in part by raising Ohio's cigarette tax to $1.60 per pack, a 35-cent increase.

The budget increased state aid for K-12 education by about $950 million. But there again, the final language was a compromise. Kasich proposed boosting aid to poorer school districts while reducing guarantees to more affluent districts. His plan would have bolstered funding by $700 million to districts and charter schools.

The final budget raised the base per-pupil aid rate, but it also guaranteed that no district would lose money from their 2015 funding rate.

For higher education, Ohio colleges and universities will be required to freeze tuition rates for the next two years.

Two years ago the issue of expanding Medicaid dominated budget discussions. Ultimately the state did expand the program, accepting federal support to cover extending coverage to Ohioans between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

This year, the Medicaid debate focused on how to run the program. A House-backed plan in the budget requires the state to seek approval to create health savings accounts and charge premiums for all Ohioans on Medicaid.

Establishing that program would require approval from the federal government, something Greg Moody, director of the state's Office of Health Transformation, is unsure that the federal government will grant.

"We agree, personal responsibility is a priority," Moody said. But while the state will apply for the waiver, as the budget language directs it to, no other state has gained approval for such a plan.

The budget in total is more than 4,100 pages.

Other items of interest in the document will:

Give pay raises to many local officials;

Block journalists' access to concealed handgun records

Punish cities that defy new traffic-camera restrictions

Allow many Cleveland bars to remain open until 4 a.m. during next summer's Republican National Convention

The new rules for abortion clinics are among the more controversial provisions. Abortion rights advocates have said they fear the changes will further threaten clinics in Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo.

The new rules, which cover all ambulatory surgical facilities, require that a transfer agreement with a local hospital be in place, and that the hospital be no more than 30 miles from the facility. The other change automatically rejects any clinic requests for variances if the state health director has not acted on them within 60 days.

A judge in Lucas County ruled June 19 in favor of a Toledo clinic, holding that restrictions on abortion clinics, including regulations addressing transfer agreements and variances, were unconstitutional. The state plans to appeal.

Last week health Director Richard Hodges rejected a variance request for the Women's Med Center of Dayton, an abortion clinic, that had been pending for more than a year. The clinic plans to resubmit its request.

Ohio Right to Life, a group that opposes abortion, advocated for the restrictions in the budget.