S.C. Department of Mental Health officials are scheduled to appear in front of Gov. Mark Sanford today to present their budget priorities for the year.

The hearing comes on the heels of recent criticism by mental health advocates that department mismanagement is partly to blame for long patient waits for admission to state mental hospitals.

Over the past two years, department officials have blamed budget cuts for patient backlogs in local hospital emergency rooms and jails. But Mental Health Director George Gintoli later told The Observer that an administrative mistake left mental patients stuck in jails for months at a time.

The Observer also found that a decision to close the state's largest mental hospital was the primary reason for patients' being stuck in local hospitals while waiting for a state bed.

The hearing, which begins at 10:30 a.m. and is open to the public, gives state agencies a chance to tell the governor what they want included in next year's budget, Sanford's spokesman Will Folks said. The hearing will take place in the Governor's Conference Room inside the Wade Hampton Building on the State House grounds.

"He'll be working with agencies to identify priorities as we face one of the more difficult years in recent memory," Folks said.

"It's an opportunity to sit down with state agencies so that ... the governor has a clear picture of programs that are working and programs that aren't working."

The governor will question agency officials, but Folks declined to say what Sanford might ask mental health officials.

Department of Mental Health staff have said that expanding crisis programs is among their top priorities.