Local House of Representatives members said Friday they're going to try one last time to get nearly $15 million the Beaufort County School District stands to lose next year back into the state budget.

Plans to do that, however, vary among members of the local House delegation. Rep. Richard Chalk Jr., R-Hilton Head Island, said he had calls in to House leaders and hoped to get members of the crucial Ways and Means Committee on his side as the Senate's $6.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2007 returns to the House.

But Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, issued a threat to fellow lawmakers Friday: If $15 million isn't able to find its way back into the budget for state schools, he said, he'll cooperate with other House delegations to sustain Gov. Mark Sanford's inevitable vetoes to specific projects within the budget.

"That's a threat, but it's not an empty threat," Herkerbsman said.

Sanford has protested the size of the Senate's budget, which is about $600 million more than the $5.9 billion "cap" he said he wanted to see honored. The Senate budget is also about $200 million larger than the House budget, and some representatives, including Thayer Rivers Jr., D-Ridgeland, have said they expect a battle over the difference.

Rivers and Rep. Kenneth Hodges, D-Bennetts Point, said they'd like to try to get the $15 million back into the budget, though they acknowledged the extreme difficulty of trying so late in the budget season -- and after a host of legislative failures.

"We don't exactly know what it's going to take yet," Hodges said. "It's going to be a long haul. I don't think anyone has the solution right now."

Rep. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort, could not be reached for comment.

In a last-gasp motion just before the Senate passed a $6.5 billion budget late Wednesday night, Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, tried to take $7.7 million from projected spring tax revenues and give it to the school district. But Richardson's amendment was tabled and failed.

Richardson also said the school district stood to lose only $7.7 million in fiscal year 2007, which begins July 1 -- not the $15 million Beaufort education officials have been discussing for the last several months. But state and local education officials confirmed Friday that Richardson was misinformed.

"My staff may have been giving me the wrong information," Richardson said.

School district officials have said a $15 million loss in state money would probably require a tax increase and cost reductions. However, what those reductions might be have not been discussed.

But a flat loss of about $15 million would be equal to a little more than 10 mills on a Beaufort County resident's tax bill, requiring a tax increase of more than $40 on a $100,000 home, according to Phyllis White, school district chief financial officer.

Beaufort County Board of Education Vice Chairman Richard Tritschler, who represents Lady's Island, declined to discuss how the school district would move forward if it does end up losing $15 million. He said the school district and the county government would have to talk before he could speculate.