The Gov. George V. Voinovich has sent to the legislature a spending proposal that includes an increase of about two and one-half percent for the Ohio Arts Council in each year of the next state biennial budget. The governor's proposal translates into an increase of $301,606 for the fiscal year that begins this July, and $309,284 for the year that begins in July 1998. The proposed increases would take the arts council's General Revenue Fund spending to $12,168,679 in fiscal year 1998, and to $12,477,963 in fiscal year 1999. Most of the state funding, $10,109,350 in FY 1998 and $10,362,084 in FY 1999, would go for program subsidies, which are grants paid to arts organizations and fellowships for individual artists. Last fall, when the current budgeting process began, the Governor's Office allowed many state agencies, including the Ohio Arts Council, to seek increases of seven percent or more for each of the next two years. Accordingly, the OAC Board requested an increase of 22 percent, or $2,616,239, in FY 1998 and an increase of almost six percent, or $851,056, in FY 1999. When it submitted its proposed budgets of $14,483,312 and $15,334,398 to the governor, the OAC Board hoped to be able to meet increased demands for arts resources from people around Ohio, and to recover from drastic reductions in state funding for the arts imposed in 1991, when the OAC budget was cut by nearly 24 percent. Last year, in a series of public meetings around the state and through surveys of constituents, Ohio Arts Council staff heard repeated requests for increased funding and enhanced programming. As members of the Ohio House and Senate review the state budget over the coming months, they may be able to resolve some of the difference between the governor's proposal of $24,646,642 for state funding of the arts and the OAC's well documented request for $29,817,710.