South Carolina's legislature left a lot of work undone for a session that stretched over almost half a year.

The session ended last week in fitting fashion -- with a Charleston senator filibustering as precious moments to get things done were lost. His cause? He was against $79 million in bond money being available to his own community, the bulk of it to boost economic growth through intellectual capital at the Medical University of South Carolina.

The greatest disappointment of the session is that it continued to rely on a house of cards to prop up a barebones $5 billion budget. The budget relies on "manna from heaven" that was dropped in the state's lap at the 11th hour -- a one-time federal allocation that itself was a late move by a Congress awash in red ink.

The budget also is bolstered by raids on trust funds that are foolish IOUs that must be paid back in the future. State Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, was rebuffed in his push for greater accountability from the legislature as it siphons money from its insurance fund and other trusts. He said the amount of money raided from trust funds over the past two years now hovers around $100 million. That is irresponsible.

And, contrary to what House of Representative leaders say, the budget still depends on tax increases. The increases come in the form of a new $25 charge on traffic tickets and an extra $100 on driving under the influence tickets. We have no qualm with that, and the criminal justice agencies that will benefit sorely need the money from "users." But the public should not be led to believe that anything substantive was done by the legislature to resolve its taxing and spending dilemma.

The train wreck coming on Medicaid funding was not addressed. Medicaid reform was not enacted. Medicaid was propped up for the moment with one-time money from Washington, while a logical, long-term solution from a cigarette tax increase fell by the wayside.

School funding went backward. The legislature should, in fairness, then go backward in its demands on schools to perform. No one wants that, but expectations without resources is like the child's game of make-believe. It doesn't add up.

House leaders say a larger percentage of the budget than ever is going to K-12 education. But schools are getting less in per-pupil allocation than they were to get at the start of last year. And Clemson University's 19 percent tuition increase announced this week is a reality check on where this state is headed in support for education.

The Division of Motor Vehicles was shifted again to another management scheme. We'll see if it amounts to progress.

The guideline for drunk-driving was lowered from .10 blood alcohol content to .08, with strong leadership from state Rep. JoAnne Gilham, R-Hilton Head. But bear in mind that if this last measure had not passed, as it did in literally the minutes of the session, the federal government would have taken away highway dollars. And Gilham said the bill was laced with loopholes by attorneys.

Campaign finance reform and restrictions on predatory lending were passed, which is progress.

But it was disappointing to see that the House's progressive bill for full enforcement of the seat belt law was not taken up by the Senate. Perhaps the senators were too busy trying to make it easier to dump muck into Calibogue Sound to cope with fiscal responsibility and life-saving measures.

Hard issues that were unresolved this year will only put the legislators behind when they meet again in January.