Legislative approval of a state government budget nearly two weeks after one was supposed to have been in place, was anything but a red-letter day for Ohioans. As mistakes and outright con jobs contained in the budget become apparent, Buckeye State residents may come to remember Monday, July 13, as a red-ink day.

Concern over the spending plan was reflected in how legislators voted. The $50.5 billion, two-year budget was approved by votes of 54-44 in the House of Representatives and 17-15 in the state Senate. Those were not exactly resounding expressions of confidence.

In fact, what lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland approved is merely a thick pile of paper that will not stand the test of time. The budget, about 3,000 pages of it, is a stop-gap measure at best.

That may be the key to the fiasco, as some observers already have noted. Strickland and many legislators will be up for re-election next year. They probably will be able to use enough accounting shell games to disguise the budget's long-term flaws long enough to win in November 2010.

Not long after that, unless the state's economy begins a rocket-like recovery, the governor and lawmakers may have to start talking about massive new taxes. That is because the current budget is unsustainable. As we have explained repeatedly, it depends on billions of dollars in one-time federal ''stimulus'' funds that will not be available two years from now. It relies on accounting changes that do not add a single dollar to state revenue or reduce spending by even a dime. And it is founded on an expansion of legalized gambling that may not bring in the amount of money Strickland expects.

Much has been made of ''budget cuts'' during the past few months - but the bottom line approved Monday is not far from what state government spent during the past two years. Ohioans may remember that in June 2007, a state budget totalling $52 billion was approved. Since then, however, hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts have been forced on the state because of the declining economy. In other words, we will not be surprised if final spending figures for the past two years are not in the $50.5 billion range -the amount approved under the ''austerity'' budget for the next two years.

Approval of the new budget may have been cause for many sighs of relief in Columbus. But during the next two years, we will be surprised if they do not turn to groans of dismay throughout the state, as Ohioans are forced to confront flaws in what lawmakers and Strickland have done.

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