COLUMBIA, S.C. - Fearing a veto by Gov. Mark Sanford, a House budget-writing committee member pulled a $50,000 request for a statue honoring James "Radio" Kennedy from the spending plan adopted Thursday.

The $5.8 billion budget and a $99 million capital spending plan the committee approved now heads to the House floor where it will be taken up in two weeks.

"I thought that the governor would veto it," Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont and Ways and Means Committee vice chairman, said of the statue.

Radio Kennedy's 30-year friendship with T.L. Hanna High School football coach Harold Jones and eventual role as part of the team and the school was the inspiration for a movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr. Kennedy took special education classes at the school for decades and helped in the school cafeteria during lunchtime. His constant energy and infectious smile made for lifelong friendships in the community.

Cooper said the Anderson County Arts Commission had asked for cash after it ran into trouble raising money for the statue. After the movie's debut, a fire damaged Kennedy's home. "They raised a bunch of money locally and from Cuba Gooding ... to build him a new house," Cooper said.

A statue recognizing Radio is a great idea, but not with taxpayer's money, said Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford.

Sanford's office will spend the next two weeks looking at a budget where the details diverge greatly from what the governor proposed in January.

Sanford's office is generally pleased with the emphasis on education spending. Sanford called for spending $2,213 per student; the committee raised that to $2,290.

The committee didn't go along with Sanford's specific ideas on using lottery money in public education. "That's $12 million right there that could go to the classroom," Folks said.

The House's budget made more than a dozen changes in how education programs are paid for and reduced money in some areas. In the end, the Education Department's budget increases $170 million.

Ways and Means chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said education and law enforcement were two top areas that got more money. That's largely thanks to an improving economy that helped put $616 million more into the budget.

The plan calls for spending $52 million more on law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.

Folks said more could have been done to help the state's prison system. Ways and Means spent an extra $12 million on the Corrections Department's budget. Almost all of that goes to raises and hiring 127 new correctional officers.

Sanford wanted about $11 million for facilities, including three 256-bed additions.

Ways and Means members didn't go along with Sanford's plans to close two regional University of South Carolina campuses, either. Legislators rejected that plan last year, too.

The House budget writers did embrace 170 spending cuts Sanford offered that mostly hit agencies in personnel and technology budgets. The House saved $40 million on that, a quarter of what Sanford sought.

"There are a lot more hurdles to jump," Folks said.