• Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer clashed with Gov. Mark Sanford.

• Republican legislators stood behind a scathing education spending report that teachers trashed.

• Even taxpayers' associations were at odds over the state budget mess — and whether to raise taxes to get out of it.

The only thing that was clear was that the budget debate is boiling.

The bottom line: The state will not bring in enough tax money next year to pay for services at this year's level — from schools to prisons to the DMV.

That crunch means either cutting spending — and services — or raising taxes.

Last month, the House passed a $5.1 billion budget that would cut most state agencies and reduce per-pupil funding of schools to 1995 levels.

So far, the Senate has said that won't do.

The Senate Finance Committee passed its own $5.4 billion plan last week that would eliminate key sales tax exemptions, including a $300 cap on cars. This and other changes are expected to raise per-student spending to $1,900, below the $2,201 that education leaders say is needed, but above the House number of $1,643.

The committee also would raise the tax on cigarettes by 53 cents a pack to help pay for the Medicaid health care program for the poor — in exchange for lowering the income tax when the economy improves.

Enter Gov. Sanford. He wants a plan that looks more like the Senate's, but with emphasis on health care, not schools. His ultimate goal — to raise the taxes on cigarettes to offset growth in Medicaid. In exchange, he'd lower the income tax over time.

"What I've heard resoundingly from people is that they would like to see this kind of change," he said.

The Senate is scheduled to take up the budget this week. The Senate and the House will negotiate their differences in the budget in the coming weeks, before sending it to Sanford to sign by June 5, the end of the session. It takes effect July 1.

One potential solution to the wrangling is the "Quinn plan," being pushed by House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Richland — who isn't saying much about it.

Quinn said he and a bipartisan group of legislators are working out details, but he wants to see a fundamental shift in how the state funds education.

Traditionally, schools have relied on local property taxes to pay the bulk of their costs. This pits property owners against kids, Quinn said. It also means schools in wealthier areas have stronger schools.

"We ought to make it so that every child, no matter where they live, no matter who their daddy is, gets a good education," Quinn said.

Raising the sales tax and lowering the property tax is an option. "Anything is on the table," he said.

Dueling budget news conferences competed for attention Tuesday:

• Lt. Gov. Bauer gathered 350 business owners, hoteliers, anti-tax advocates and others to decry raising taxes of any kind.

"Government right now is finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet," he said, "but South Carolina citizens are finding it even harder to make ends meet. I'm here today to say now is not the time for a tax increase."

Bauer — who could only cast a vote on the budget in case of a tie in the Senate — was surrounded by cheering supporters, including car dealers, who are spending time and money to fight the Senate's proposal to raise the $300 sales tax cap on automobiles.

• The S.C. Policy Council called for an audit of education spending. The council's analysis shows only 50 percent of state and federal funds for education go to the classroom, president Ed McMullen said.

"There is no excuse for this in South Carolina," McMullen said.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, and a dozen Republican legislators backed McMullen at the podium.

"This is all about priorities," Wilkins said.

• The education community's reaction to that critique was swift.

Elizabeth Gressette, who heads the Palmetto State Teachers Association, called the Policy Council "misguided." The organization used numbers from 2001 that don't reflect midyear and other cuts, she said. The study also did not count guidance counselors, libraries and librarians or after-school programs as classroom costs, she added.

The state Department of Education put out a two-page memo offering retorts or contradictions to many of the points the Policy Council made.

• Gov. Sanford held his own news conference, flanked by small-business representatives. Some dealt in mattresses, pizza or plumbing; some were state and local Chamber of Commerce leaders.

Sanford said he was "guardedly optimistic" about the coming weeks of budget wrangling. He is challenging the General Assembly to pass his plan to swap lowering the income tax with raising the cigarette tax. That would show the state that fundamental tax reform has a future.

"If you can't trade off a cigarette tax in exchange for a tax decrease, I don't know how you pull off any of the other more difficult plans out there."

Staff writer Bill Robinson contributed to this report.