"This budget is sustainable when you take into account the estimates that our economists are giving us about the way in which the state's economy will be recovering, albeit slowly," J. Pari Sabety told the House Finance Committee yesterday in her first appearance presenting Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed $54.7 billion two-year budget.

But at this point, House Republicans just don't buy the math.

"When you look at the revenue forecasts they've put out for 2012 and 2013, it doesn't even come close. It's a huge gap," said Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, the ranking minority member on the Finance Committee.

Sabety spent more than three hours yesterday on the governor's budget plans, accepting some compliments from Democrats while fending off a few tough questions from Republicans over the use of one-time money, the increase of 120 fees and a new school-funding plan.

She also warned of dire consequences if Ohio doesn't get what it wants out of the federal stimulus package. The U.S. Senate-passed bill would result in a cut of up to $1 billion in funding from Strickland's budget.

Amstutz said those warnings are a "billion-dollar preview of a more than $3 billion problem in the first year of the next budget."

The governor is counting on $5.7 billion in federal stimulus money in all: $756 million for Medicaid and other uses in the budget that ends June 30 and $4.9 billion for the upcoming two-year budget.

All one-time money in Strickland's upcoming budget actually totals $6.8 billion, which includes $1.9 billion in state one-time money, such as draining the $948 million rainy-day fund.

"Resources were used to support a wide array of general government programs," Sabety said of the federal dollars. Critics say that makes it tougher to replace the money if it is not all approved, or if there is a shortfall in the next two-year budget.

Sabety told reporters that the stimulus money the state is counting on would be hard to replace under any calculation. She defended its use.

"We have a choice here. Our state can be an engine as part of the recovery or it can be a barrier to our progress," she said.

With heavy use of one-time money, a shifting of programs outside the general revenue fund, and the zeroing out of some line items that have been reorganized or replaced with federal money, Republicans were struggling to reconcile Sabety's statements with the budget documents.

Rep. Randy Gardner said that while the governor points to a $925 million school-funding increase over the two years, he adds up all education money in the governor's budget summary and gets a $5 million cut in 2010.

The veteran Bowling Green Republican also said he's hearing from school officials who can't tell whether they're going to be better off under the governor's plan.

Sabety defended the $925 million figure, and noted that some line items disappeared and were wrapped into the school-funding formula. "We had a lot of redundant resources focused on many small aspects of the same problem," she said.

As for questions about why some poorer districts are cut, while some wealthier suburbs get big funding boosts, Sabety urged lawmakers to keep an eye on the "long view" when the new funding model is fully phased in over eight years.

"We are moving from a complex funding system to a simpler system," she said. "So there's bound to be changes that folks are comfortable with and others are not."

Strickland's education plan got a major political boost yesterday when the Ohio Business Roundtable, an influential group of chief executives, endorsed the plan.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

mniquette@dispatch.com