COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's economic troubles that will require a $700 million cut in the state budget this summer originated in Washington and elsewhere, Gov. Ted Strickland told newspaper editors and reporters today.

Strickland, speaking at the 2008 legislative preview sponsored by The Associated Press, blamed budget problems in Ohio on the skyrocketing price of oil, mortgage foreclosures and a national economy that has nose-dived in the last year.

“We are paying the price in Ohio for the debacle that is Washington, D.C.,” Strickland said.

He said letters he's written to federal officials asking for help have elicited little response. He was bipartisan in his blame. He said U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, have mostly remained silent.

“That request has gone largely unheard or ignored,” Strickland said.

The governor wouldn't rule out going to the state's $1 billion rainy day fund if problems turn out to be worse than he expects.

In a discussion among the Republican and Democratic leaders in the Legislature, majority Republicans' honed their concerns about a $1.7 billion bond package that Strickland proposed on Wednesday as an economic development tool. House Speaker Jon Husted said that if voters approved such an issue, it would put Ohio too close to its debt ceiling.

“Do we … borrow our way to prosperity or pay as we go?” Husted asked.

When Strickland was wooing lawmakers on his plan to sell the state's share of the national tobacco settlement, which netted $5.5 billion, he spoke of “flattening debt” brought on by the sale of bonds, Husted said. That was reversed by what Strickland said Wednesday, Husted said.

“If you want a good working relationship with people, you have to trust what they are telling you,” he said. “It's about trusting those figures.”