COLUMBIA - Taking a different approach to state finances from his predecessors, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford is grilling agency heads in detail about what their departments do and why, and asking them to show him what they've accomplished with the money they get.

His goal, he said, is to put tax dollars to their best use.

"It's about trying to get away from political fig leaves that cost us money but don't do a whole lot, and toward results," Sanford said in an interview with The Observer last week.

Meeting with officials of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services late last month, Sanford asked bluntly, "Does DAODAS do anything?" Despite the agency's $45 million annual budget, the number of people in the state with alcohol and drug problems hasn't changed in years, he said.

The $5 billion state spending plan for the next 12 months, which took effect Tuesday, reflects the drop in tax collections caused by the national economic recession. Appropriations for most agencies have been cut from a year ago. Public schools are getting less money per pupil than anytime in the last 10 years.

But not a single program was eliminated. In passing the annual budget, lawmakers don't examine each agency to see how they've been spending their money. They just listen to requests for additional money, or -- as has been the case the past three years -- they trim an amount off an agency's total and leave it up to the agency to decide where to cut back.

Sanford has been critical of that practice since his election campaign last year.

"The way it's been done to date is everybody has to cut some, but leave in place programs that may be political sacred cows that aren't all that effective," he said. "That eliminates our ability to go back in and fund programs that are working."

An example he named was D.A.R.E., a federally aided drug education program for school-age children that is run on the local level by police and sheriff's departments.

"The fact that it still exists isn't related to whether or not it's proving successful and actually making a difference in kids' lives," Sanford said. "The agency director would leave that alone because it's too much political damage to try to make the cut."

So, in preparing to write the budget proposal he will send lawmakers in January, Sanford is trying something commonly called "zero-based budgeting" in which everything in an agency's budget is put on the table. He's holding hearings with agency leaders now, a year before the next fiscal year begins, to gather information for a budget proposal.

Zero-based budgeting is not a new idea. Many states and local governments have tried it, said University of South Carolina public administration professor James Douglas.

"It's never really worked the way it was intended," he said. "That's because most of the stuff that's in the budget is stuff we want. We're not going to shut down schools because we don't think they're useful anymore."

Another reason things stay in public budgets year after year, he said, is because "they represent agreements that have occurred in the past. We can't rehash every single thing in the budget every year. There's not enough time, and it would raise the level of political conflict."

Nevertheless, Sanford is making a smart move, Douglas said. "Now, he gets a better sense of what's going on inside the agencies, and he gets a better idea of what he wants his priorities to be. It will give him information that he needs to put together his executive budget."

But a governor's budget proposal in South Carolina has so far meant much less than in North Carolina and many other states where governors get to appoint department heads throughout state government. In South Carolina, the agencies that spend about two of every three state tax dollars are independent of the governor.

"The real big money, with the exception of health and corrections, are really outside of us," Sanford said. The education department, for example, is independent of the governor's office. Education leaders go straight to the legislature on budget matters, he said.

That could change within the next two years. Sanford has proposed making most agency heads gubernatorial appointees, including the currently elected state superintendent of education.

Key lawmakers say they think the governor will get his way on education, at least.

"Everybody recognizes that it should be a cabinet position. That's where the majority of the state budget goes," said Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, agreed.

"It's the right thing to do. The executive branch should be speaking on our most important issue, which is education, with one voice. And obviously, that ought to be the governor."

In the meantime, whether Sanford's budget proposal gets taken seriously by the legislature will depend on the commitment he puts into it, said USC professor Douglas.

Harrell said that if Sanford submits a serious proposal, "We will take it very seriously."

Sanford said he intends to do just that, which is why he is holding budget hearings.

"Perhaps (the budget) wasn't as big a priority with some governors," Sanford said. "What wakes me up in the morning, is, in fact, the budget."