WITH ALL THE gushing we’ve heard for nearly two weeks now, it seems more likely that House members will join hands and sing “Kumbaya” than actually ask hard questions when they meet today to take up the Ways and Means Committee’s budget proposal.

That would be a mistake.

For all its good points — from a significant increase in public education funding and stable funding for Medicaid to a replenishment of depleted law enforcement ranks and generous pay raises for law enforcement officers — the budget has some serious shortcomings, in terms of both priorities and fiscal soundness.

Last year, lawmakers used $200 million in one-time money to fund basic operational costs at several state agencies, and they warned the agencies that the money wouldn’t necessarily be made up this year. The money has been restored to some agency budgets, but some critical agencies have been overlooked.

One particularly troubling example is the Department of Mental Health, which has been among the hardest-hit agencies throughout recent budget cuts — and where cuts can have life-or-death implications. It would actually receive nearly $1 million less next year than it did this year.

The departments of Corrections and Public Safety and some other law enforcement agencies — which, like the Mental Health Department, perform critical services and aren’t in any position to turn away “customers” — didn’t have their operational funds restored either, but you can’t tell that because they did get money to hire more officers, purchase new equipment and increase pay. That could potentially result in them having to hire new people while having to lay off current employees.

Another big problem is the distance between what the budget purports to do and what it actually does.

Budget-writers say they incorporated 175 of Gov. Mark Sanford’s cost-saving suggestions in the budget, for a total of more than $38 million. But most of the governor’s proposals were contingent on the Legislature approving restructuring initiatives such as the creation of a Department of Administration and merging the state adult and juvenile parole boards.

The budget doesn’t include the changes to information technology, human resources and property management that many of the savings rely on, and the Ways and Means Committee rejected those changes in a separate bill it approved earlier this year. The budget does include a proviso to merge the two parole boards. But it says it must not be implemented unless the Legislature passes stand-alone legislation — and there has been no indication so far that such a thing will even be considered this year. So in a year when state spending will go up more than $600 million, many agencies will have to cut programs in order to meet their budgets.

We have to assume that the lack of complaints about these problems stems from a lack of knowledge about them. Whatever the reason, they need to be addressed. And that’s what the House needs to do, even if it interferes with the love-in.