COLUMBUS — In an attempt to lessen the sting felt by budget cuts, Republican state senators are throwing an extra $100 million into the local government fund, putting up $30 million for school districts that earn an excellent rating next school year, and restoring funding for some human service programs such as childhood immunizations and adoption services.

The latest version, unveiled Tuesday, includes a guarantee that no school district will see a drop in basic state aid over the next two years, other than the loss of federal stimulus money and reimbursements for the phased-out tangible personal property tax.

Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, called the changes “a responsible budget that addresses the needs of the citizens of Ohio, and allows us to do it without raising taxes.”

Democrats, however, said the adjustments won’t lessen the impact on working families. “It is a drop in the bucket for both local governments and schools,” said state Sen. Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood, the ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate version of the budget includes more money than the bill that passed the House last month.

The senators were able to use somewhat rosier projections of revenue and Medicaid caseloads, as provided by the Legislative Service Commission. Some of the local government money was also transferred from a pot intended to help cities and counties consolidate and share services.

The latest 4,800-page budget bill includes scores of changes that will affect average Ohioans. Among them: Beer sold in Ohio may soon be packing a bigger punch.

The budget bill proposes boosting the allowable alcohol content to 18 percent, up from the current 12 percent limit.

State Sen. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, said the change would help microbrewers that want to produce and sell higher alcohol content craft beers in Ohio. Ten years ago, the state bumped the limit from 6 percent to 12 percent, he said.

Senate Republicans are also re-working charter school provisions inserted by the GOP-controlled House.

They’re stripping out language that would have given for-profit charter school operators the right to run community schools without a sponsor and with less public disclosure. School choice advocates said this would have weakened accountability for the charter school system.

Thomas Needles, a lobbyist for the state’s largest charter school operator, White Hat Management, told the Dayton Daily News last week that he was be-hind the language included in the House bill.

Under the Senate changes, charter sponsors won’t be allowed to add new schools unless at least 80 percent of their schools are academically performing in the top 95 percent of schools.

The Senate Finance Committee, headed by Chairman Chris Widener, R-Springfield, will hold hearings Wednesday and Thursday on the new version and make last-minute changes again next week before sending the bill to the full Senate for a vote. After that, a conference committee will hammer out differences between the Senate and House versions.

A balanced budget must be adopted by June 30.

All told, the current version calls for spending $112 billion during two years and $55.7 billion in the general revenue fund.

Widener and Niehaus said Senate Republicans are still working on nursing home funding, public employee pension contribution rates, wage regulations, commercial activity taxes applied to casino wagers and the plan to privatize the state’s liquor merchandising business to fund the new JobsOhio economic development entity. There is also a chance a last- minute proposal to allow video lottery terminals at horse racetracks may be included, Senate Republicans said.

The current budget largely adheres to major policies embraced by Gov. John Kasich and House Republicans, including: allowing drilling for oil and natural gas in parks, expanding school choice vouchers, eliminating estate tax starting in 2013 and privatizing four adult prisons.