Sanford to address budget 'deficit'

COLUMBIA — Gov. Mark Sanford is taking aim at the Legislature's $7 billion budget, a day after the House and Senate pushed aside nearly all his vetoes.

Sanford will hold a news conference this afternoon to discuss legislators "knowingly passing a budget that will mean deficits for the state of South Carolina."

The state constitution requires a balanced budget, and the governor's office said Sanford will talk about any potential legal consequences of the Legislature's spending plan that leaves the departments of Education and Corrections with projected shortfalls. The budget year begins on July 1.

Lawmakers have said they disagree with Sanford's stance that the budget is not balanced.

The governor took especially hard aim at senators late Wednesday after they took up his budget vetoes.

"While we believe that the House ultimately failed to address our state's financial situation, what the Senate did in not sustaining a single dollar's worth of vetoes shows not only a disdain for taxpayers, but a complete abdication of their constitutional duty to put forth a budget that is indeed balanced," Sanford said in a statement. "While there are a handful of fiscal conservatives in the Senate, today has proven once again that we do not have a conservative majority in the state Senate."

Sanford and the Legislature have clashed consistently over the years with regard spending. He issued 69 vetoes worth $72 million this year.

Read Friday's editions of The Post and Courier for more on this story.