Last year, the Legislature's light-speed veto overrides irked Sanford enough that he headed to the state House chamber toting a pair of squirming, defecating piglets: Pork and Barrel.
Then this week, all but 10 of the governor's 149 budget vetoes were killed. Instead of outrageous antics, Sanford thanked the "taxpayer heroes" he said faced threats for bucking their peers.
"That to me just shows a tremendous amount of courage," Sanford said. "It says to me that this notion of watching out for taxpayers is a growing, rather than a diminishing theme in South Carolina."
After two years of losing budget fights with the Legislature, Sanford said it's time to seek a change in the state's Constitution to cap state spending. "If we can't resolve it," he said, why not "turn that question back to the taxpayers of South Carolina. Let them decide."
The state Constitution already caps state spending through a formula tied to personal income growth. Under that cap, spending is allowed to reach $10.8 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1, almost double the $5.8 billion legislators approved.
Sanford wants voters to decide whether state spending should be capped at a fixed figure, such as no more than 7.5 percent for example. He said he would offer a formal proposal next week.
In recent weeks, Sanford has railed against legislators for taking state spending 9 percent higher in the 2005-06 budget than the current fiscal year.
Legislators say Sanford's numbers are, at best, misleading.
For instance, they say, Sanford's complaint about 9 percent spending growth misses the fact that the new budget only returns overall state spending to pre-recession levels. State spending dropped by more than 10 percent from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2004.
Legislators said they have their spending priorities in order. They note the state will meet per-student public school spending requirements in the 2006 budget for the first time since 2000.
Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman also says Medicaid and state lottery spending inflate Sanford's figures. "That's where it's coming from," Leatherman said.
Sen. Tommy Moore, a Clearwater Democrat who wants to take on Sanford in the governor's race next year, cited Cato Institute figures that show the state's spending growth on a per capita basis during the past decade has been 2.6 percent. That ranks the state near the bottom - 43rd - in spending growth, he said.
"I think we need to be careful with the numbers we're tossing around," Moore said. It would be better to take a long-term view of growth "and not just a snapshot," he said.
Given Sanford's short supply of veto supporters and ongoing friction with legislators, selling two-thirds of the House and Senate members on a constitutional amendment may be tough.
Looking at his record, "so far it's pretty clear that Mark Sanford couldn't sell pictures of Paris Hilton to a college frat house," South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin said in a statement.