(Columbia) June 5, 2003 - The budget has dominated much of the General Assembly's attention this year, and was still on the mind of many lawmakers at the session adjournment at 5:00pm Thursday.

With Governor Sanford's vetoes on the budget compromise passed by the House and Senate not due back until Monday, an extended session was pending. Wednesday, however, the Senate failed to pass a special session.

The bill to lower the state's limit on blood alcohol in DUI cases to 0.08 was also in conference committee Thursday morning where lawmakers were debating the Senate's version. Victim advocates say it provides too many potential loopholes for DUI suspects and favors trial lawyers. That bill was passed in the waning minutes of the session in the Senate.

A report on Campaign Finance Reform also made its way out of conference committee Thursday. 

The House Wednesday passed a bill allowing bars to "free pour" drinks and imposing a five percent tax on those drinks to offset the loss of revenue from minibottles. The House also passed a separate bill to allow voters to decide on minibottles next year.

Political parties and campaign donors will have to disclose more information under a bill legislators approved Thursday before going home. Under the bill, political parties will have disclose soft money contributions. The bill would also bar lobbyists from giving money to political action committees. State Ethics Commission Executive Director Herb Hayden also says the bill will eventually require statewide and General Assembly candidates to file campaign finance reports electronically.

Democrats give Republican lawmakers and F- on how they dealt with education funding this year.

Sen. Brad Hutto (D) Orangeburg, says the Democratic report card on other issues doesn't look much better, "We used the word in here meltdown. There's going to be a meltdown and unfortunately, we're going to have to come back. We're going to need to come back if we don't do something to alleviate the needs of our children, our senior citizens."

Richland County Sen. Darrell Jackson (D), also wasn't pleased with the session, "It has been a very very strange year and a very disappointing year. We've worked long hours, but really cannot account for any of the hours that we spent as it relates to substance."

Both parties agree passage of legislation on predatory lending has been a significant step forward, but major bills failed, including Public Service Commission reform.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman (R) Florence, says almost every proposal took a back seat to the state's budget troubles, "This has been the toughest session I've seen in 23 years. It's been as successful as it could be when you look at the shortage of revenue."

Governor Mark Sanford says the session is only a start on his agenda, "You never get quite as much as you'd like to have gotten, but that's the nature of trying to do a better job. So I think that we, you know, had some wins. We set up a great foundation for pulling off the changes that I ran on."

Republicans say other successes include passage of reapportionment legislation and DMV reform, which also gave the state a start on restructuring. 
 
One thing they did not get was Senate agreement on a resolution allowing lawmakers to return to Columbia later this month to deal with vetoes, which means any vetoes by the governor will not get legislative scrutiny until January.
    
There are also new revenue projections out day indicating more budget problems ahead.

By Jack Kuenzie
Updated 8:20am by Eva Pilgrim