Are the S.C. political leaders who this week agreed to a three-year plan for repaying the $155 million deficit left over from fiscal 2002 rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? They well may be.

Not that the members of the S.C. Budget and Control Board were wrong to propose that the General Assembly tap the state's general and capital reserve funds over the next three years to pay back the money. Gov. Mark Sanford; S.C. Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston; S.C. Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence; S.C. Treasurer Grady Patterson; and S.C. Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom are right to worry that failure to repay the deficit could damage the state's ability to borrow money on the bond markers.

But as Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, points out, the $155 million still will have to be made up by cutting state programs even deeper. The reserves have to be maintained, too. Spreading the pain over three years may make it less hurtful, but only economic recovery can put public schools and other essential state programs on the path to recovery.