UPDATE 1-US voters reject spending limits,OK casinos in Ohio

CHICAGO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Voters in Maine and Washington state on Tuesday rejected measures to limit spending, while voters in cash-strapped Ohio approved casinos, according to unofficial results compiled by Ballotwatch on Wednesday. "Rejection of spending limits in Maine and Washington hint that voters may not be overly concerned with growth in government spending, despite a huge expansion in federal spending over the last year," said a report by Ballotwatch, based at the University of Southern California's Initiative & Referendum Institute. Ohio voters, after turning down casinos in previous elections, changed their minds as the state struggles with sinking revenue due to the economic recession. The measure, which passed with nearly 53 percent of the vote, allows casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo. Proponents of the measure, which included Penn National Gaming, have said the casinos will create 34,000 jobs, bring $200 million in licensing fees and generate an estimated $651 million annually in revenue for cash-strapped Ohio and its local governments and school districts. Ohio voters also approved selling $200 million of bonds to provide services and compensation to residents who are veterans of conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq, Ballotwatch said. New Jersey voters said yes to issuing $400 million of bonds to safeguard land for parks and conservation, reported. In Texas, voters approved all the state-wide proposals on Tuesday's ballot, according to Ballotwatch. They included a proposal to create a national research university fund to help state institutions and another to allow the Veterans' Land Board to issue general obligation bonds to help ex-military members buy homes. Other ballot questions that passed were whether to allow Texas to fund and run veterans' hospitals and whether to enable municipalities or counties to issue debt to buy space that surrounds military installations. There were only 26 state-wide measures on ballots this year compared to 34 in the last odd-year election in 2007, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. BOND SPENDING QUESTIONS Bond questions on ballots in several U.S. states totaled $9.9 billion, according to New York-based data company Ipreo. Despite economic hard times, voters approved some of the biggest debt issues, according to local election offices and governments. Voters in Marion County, Indiana, which includes Indianapolis, agreed to issue $704 million of bonds to build new facilities for Wishard Hospital. Detroit voters approved a $500 million bond issue for its financial struggling school district, allowing it to take advantage of federal subsidies on bond interest costs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Virginia's Fairfax County received the green light from voters for nearly $233 million of school construction bonds. Utah's Davis School district won approval for $250 million of bonds, while voters in Surprise, Arizona turned down nearly $185 million of bonds for various projects. (Reporting by Karen Pierog, additional reporting by Ros Krasny in Portland, Maine, Editing by W Simon ) Keywords: USA MUNICIPAL/ELECTIONS Keywords: USA MUNICIPAL/ELECTIONS ([e-mail]; 1 312 408 8647; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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