With the House sustaining one veto Wednesday as it zoomed through Sanford's 43-page veto message, the General Assembly agreed with the governor on just seven of his 106 vetoes.
Sanford won mostly minor fights in the spending plan, which pays off a $155 million deficit from two years ago and gives state workers a 3 percent, across-the-board raise, their first in two years. The budget takes effect July 1.
Sanford did not immediately respond to questions. His spokesman, Will Folks, said the governor wouldn't comment on specific vetoes "until the process is completed" in the Legislature.
On Wednesday, the House agreed that a workers compensation fund shouldn't be run the state Insurance Department, which also would be responsible for regulating it.
Among the vetoes sustained by the Senate were:
- That the Department of Social Services should have more flexibility in dealing with budget reduction through the way it handles child care reimbursements;
- That the Aeronautics Commission shouldn't be moved from control of the Commerce Department and into the Transportation Department;
- And that the State Law Enforcement Division shouldn't be able to raise fines to $5,000 on video gambling machines it seizes.
Sanford said the latter provision denied due process for those accused of breaking the video gambling law. Still, "I believe those who would illegally operate illegal machines should face punitive fines," the governor said in his veto message.
"I think the governor was dead on the money," Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said.
It was a much better outcome for Sanford than on Wednesday when the Republican governor pulled House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, off the floor to complain about the lack of debate on his vetoes.
Things didn't start so well Thursday, either.
Sanford carried two squealing piglets - named "Pork" and "Barrel" - under his arms up the steps to the lobby outside the House and Senate to decry what he saw as pork in the budget. Most lawmakers blasted it as a stunt and some said it would make the butt of jokes nationally.
As much as Sanford huffed and puffed, though, the Senate still mostly blew his vetoes down.
For instance, his vetoes on nearly $250,000 earmarked for an Upstate hot air balloon festival and $380,000 for a college football bowl game in Charleston ultimately were overridden.
Keri Hall, executive director of Freedom Weekend Aloft, told the Anderson Independent-Mail she wasn't aware that the money was headed to the event and said it would be the biggest state grant for the program in its 23 years.
"It's always great to get that type of support from the city, county or state, but it's never something we plan on," Hall said.
The Palmetto Bowl "is one of the greatest investments we can make," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Charleston, said. The $380,000 would improve The Citadel's football facilities. No state money would go into that until the state is guaranteed at least a $1 million return in tax collections, Leatherman said.
Another item Sanford lost was the $5 million taken from a beach renourishment program at Hunting Island State Park.
In all, the Senate gave discussion to a little over a dozen items on Sanford's list.
Still, Folks said Sanford "appreciates the Senate actually discussing those vetoes based on their merits."