COLUMBIA - Debate on the state's $5.3 billion budget was a study in extremes Thursday, as senators killed a deal to take more low-level nuclear waste at a Barnwell facility and argued over the need for money and the desire to cut taxes.

Two months ago, the House passed a plan to allow Chem-Nuclear Systems Inc., which operates the low-level nuclear waste site, to pay the state $6 million to get an additional 100,000 cubic feet in storage capacity.

That space was needed for waste by DuraTek, Chem-Nuclear's parent, Chem-Nuclear spokeswoman Deborah Ogilvie said. DuraTek wanted to divert processed waste destined for a site in the western region to Barnwell, Ogilvie said.

But Sens. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn, and Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, said the state was selling the space too cheaply. While Chem-Nuclear would pay $6 million, the space is worth at least $25 million, Thomas said. The company could resell the space "and put the rest of it in their pockets."

If the state was going to be in that kind of a deal, it at least should profit from it, Thomas said.

Ogilvie said that was not the intention. She said the state needed the money and her company needed the space.

Gov. Mark Sanford "was not wild about the idea of bringing in more waste because the state is having tough budget times," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said. "It could lead to reopening Barnwell capacity to other waste," Folks said.

The proposal was killed after Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, said it would allow more waste to come into the state as it tries to shake the moniker of being the nation's nuclear dumping ground. "This would be absolutely a step backward," Courson said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman said the loss of Barnwell money has been the biggest hole so far put in his panel's $5.3 billion spending plan.

But there's a growing hole people aren't willing to talk about, Richardson said. Legislators are closing their eyes to nearly $600 million in IOUs accumulating after four years of raiding trust and reserve accounts and a $155 million unpaid bill from an unconstitutional state deficit in the 2002 budget year, Richardson said.

By raiding trust funds, "all we've done is hide the financial condition of this state," Richardson said.

But tax increases are unlikely in an election year. Efforts to raise the state's cigarette tax died Tuesday and Wednesday after they were ruled out of order. Also failing Wednesday was a proposal to raise the state's sales tax cap on cars costing more than $37,000 to $500 from $300.