COLUMBIA--In the waning hours of the legislative session, state Sen. John Kuhn killed a measure that included almost $79 million for Charleston colleges and universities, plus a culinary arts program for Trident Tech, with his filibuster of an infrastructure bond bill.

Kuhn's last-day dramatics took center stage on the Senate floor for about three hours as the Charleston Republican argued that the bill's funding formula was flawed and that bonds were no way to spend money in tough budget times.

Besides costing colleges and universities throughout South Carolina $250 million, the move cost Kuhn the last vestiges of cordiality with some Charleston lawmakers, who slammed him for derailing programs they'd been working on for a year.

Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, even attempted a last-minute move to slip the bond bill through on other legislation. Kuhn held up that up, too.

"Senator Kuhn has violated one of the biggest rules of the Charleston County legislative delegation," said state Rep. David Mack, D-North Charleston. "We might fight like cats and dogs, but when it comes to bringing money home, we always stick together."

Kuhn's fellow Republicans were just as hard, if not harder, on the first-term lawmaker, saying they could not believe his stance. Lawmakers had hoped that the scientific research and economic development infrastructure bond bill would help attract major companies such as Boeing to South Carolina and fund a biotech business incubator.

The bill included $73 million for a Medical University of South Carolina research building, $2.1 million for The Citadel, $2.9 million for the College of Charleston and $1.2 million for Trident Technical College, plus authorization for the school to start a four-year culinary arts program to fill the void left by the pending departure of Johnson and Wales University.

"I'm terribly disappointed that Senator Kuhn allowed that entire list of things to be lost," said Harrell, who saw the legislation pass the House a month ago. "It's incredibly frustrating. If we don't get that culinary arts program up and running (with the loss of Johnson and Wales), it's going to hurt the restaurants that make us one of the best dining cities in the country."

Kuhn said he didn't think that the Legislature should, in a budget crisis, pass such a monstrous spending bill on the last day of the session and that the funding formula gave too much money to the big research universities and too little to smaller colleges.

He said the fact that lawmakers rejected his proposed amendment means that in actuality they killed the bond bill.

"They have no one to blame but themselves. The blood is on their hands," Kuhn said. "I didn't want the bill but was willing to compromise, but they wouldn't. I do not believe in the middle of an economic crisis is a good time to blow $250 million for any project, let alone higher education. Despite that, I was willing to compromise."

But Charleston lawmakers said there was more on Kuhn's mind during their discussions with him Thursday. In addition to trying to change the funding formulas, they said, Kuhn suggested he might be willing to drop his opposition to the bond bill if the House would pass his school governance structure bill.

Kuhn's bill called for Charleston County school board members to be elected from nine, single-member districts in partisan elections while taking away the powers of the eight constituent boards and giving the superintendent more power. Support for the bill fell apart in the House over several components of his proposal, prompting angry words between Kuhn and other lawmakers.

The recriminations re-emerged Thursday.

"If John Kuhn thinks I'm going to support his bill that would force busing in schools for racial purposes, he can just filibuster until hell freezes over," said Rep. John Graham Altman III, R-West Ashley.

Kuhn confirmed that his school bill came up in negotiations Thursday, but he said he was more interested in the funding formula.

Rep. Jim Merrill, R-Daniel Island, called Kuhn's move "unconscionable," and Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, said the $73 million to MUSC alone would have circulated through the community seven or eight times.

MUSC President Dr. Ray Greenberg said the school was counting on the bill's passage today.

"It would have had a tremendous economic impact on Charleston County," Greenberg said. "We were certainly hoping it would pass this legislative cycle."

There is no chance of passing the bill before next year, but some senators said even then the package may not garner much support.

Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said some senators thought the bill gave too much money to the research universities while doling out only $30 million to the other 27 colleges in the state. Kuhn wanted that figure doubled, Ford said, but some senators wanted it quadrupled.

Ford blasted his colleagues for not compromising with Kuhn.

"Compromise is part of politics, just like apple pie and Chevrolet is America," Ford said. "We couldn't support that formula, not when we're spending other people's money."

MUSC had hoped to use the $73 million to help alleviate a shortage of research space on campus. The university wanted to use some of it to pay part of the cost of the Children's Research Institute currently under construction.

Dr. John Raymond, MUSC's provost, said the university can finish the institute without the funds, largely through philanthropy and grants, but doing so will be a struggle.

"We're going to scrape by until we get the money," he said.

The university also planned to use some of the $73 million as matching funds to build an entirely new research building devoted to neurosciences, an area of growing strength at MUSC. In addition, the university wanted to start planning the construction of another facility.

College of Charleston officials did not comment directly on the filibuster Thursday.

"We were hopeful for some regulatory relief and that didn't happen in this session," said Daniel Dukes, senior vice president for governmental affairs at College of Charleston.

Mary Thornley, president of Trident Technical College, said the bill's failure was a "great disappointment." Though the school lost about $1.2 million in deferred maintenance funds, she said the biggest disappointment is that the defeat means at least a six-month delay for the four-year culinary arts program.

The Citadel was surprised by the move, but didn't immediately know what it would mean for the college.

"With the cuts in the state budget, the loss of any money that would have been coming to the college is cause for concern," said spokeswoman Charlene Gunnells. "Everything is tight."

Harrell, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, moved to attach the measure to a technical bill that simply allowed lottery scholarship holders to transfer grade point averages between schools. Because that legislation already had passed the Senate, all the House had to do was attach the amendment and get the Senate to concur.

Kuhn also blocked that move.

Harrell, one of the architects of the bill, said the proposal had been in the works for months and changing the funding formula at the last minute was out of the question. As for the argument about taking no money as opposed to a larger share, he said that was a matter of perspective.

"We'll let the people decide," Harrell said. "When the people hear what he's cost Charleston, we'll see what they say."

Jonathan Maze, Allison Bruce, James Scott and Steve Reeves of the Post and Courier staff contributed to this report.