It may be unseemly for a coastal newspaper to object to an official decision this week that affects an Upstate institution, Greenville Technical College. But the S.C. Budget and Control Board's 3-2 approval of a dormitory for the college has potential to hurt all S.C. taxpayers over time.

That's why Gov. Mark Sanford, a member of the board, voted against the proposal. Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and S.C. Treasurer Grady Patterson voted for it.

Private college foundation money will finance construction of the 400-unit dorm. So the project may have no immediate impact on S.C. taxpayers. But as the governor notes, the project will drive up the cost of government longer term, for two key reasons:

Once constructed, the Greenville tech dormitory would become a public building. Student rents may or may not cover annual operating costs for the structure, but the college would have to insure it, provide security for it and maintain it. Some of those costs will accrue to local and state taxpayers.

The project also sets a bad precedent. Two-year state-supported colleges, with only one grandfathered exception, do not have dormitories. The technical colleges are commuter facilities. This stretches the colleges' budgets - derived mainly from state and local tax money, tuition and lottery scholarship money - a long way.

Now that the Budget and Control Board has established this precedent, will there follow more dormitory proposals from the state's other two-year colleges? It could happen. It doesn't take much encouragement to put the higher education administrative mind into the empire-building mode.

The Budget and Control Board, as well as S.C. legislators, historically have tended to develop tunnel vision when handling spending decisions such as the one for Greenville Tech. They are blind to the decisions' long-term budget implications. If state spending is ever to come under control, this habit of mind must pass into history - and stay there.