Gov. Ted Strickland says he's planning to hit the road soon to tell Ohioans directly just how bad the economy is getting and what type of budget pain might be ahead for the state.

The governor said he'll probably travel throughout Ohio "in the not-too-distant future" to explain, as he put it, how the national economy is affecting the state's economy and how state government is going to have to deal with it.

"That will involve making choices that, in some cases, will be quite painful, but I believe they will be choices that will be necessary," Strickland said last week after a forum on school funding in Columbus. "I think the state of Ohio will be facing economic challenges like we have never faced, perhaps in the history of our state."

Strickland's budget director has said that additional budget cuts probably will be needed beyond the $1.3 billion in reductions and other adjustments that have been made to the current budget, which expires June 30, and that agency spending likely will have to slashed in the next two-year budget as well.

"Will it mean that we're going to have to tighten our belts very significantly in some areas?" Strickland asked. "Absolutely, and I'm going to try to be as candid and as transparent with the people of this state as it is possible to be."

-- Mark Niquette mniquette@dispatch.com