COLUMBIA, S.C. - A new round of budget cuts may be needed to wipe out the state's unconstitutional $177 million deficit, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom says.

After releasing budget figures Wednesday that showed the state ran $22 million in the red last fiscal year on top of a $155 million deficit the fiscal year before, Eckstrom said the state has to balance its budget immediately, even if that means taking money from state agencies.

The state constitution requires a balanced budget

"We're standing in $177 million dollars of red ink and that ink's getting boiling hot and I don't want to stand in that ink too long," Eckstrom said.

South Carolina wiped out its $38.8 million rainy day reserve fund and still ended up with a deficit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, Eckstrom said.

The state is using money for this year's $5.1 billion budget to make up for last year's shortfall, just as it did the year before, Eckstrom said.

"The constitution makes it clear that we're not even supposed to be where we are right now," Eckstrom said.

The state Budget and Control Board will discuss the deficit when it meets next week. Eckstrom wants the five-member panel to consider immediate budget cuts.

Eckstrom also wrote Board of Economic Advisers Chairman John Rainey on Monday, asking for an immediate meeting of the state revenue forecasting group. Given the lackluster economy, that board needs to say whether its revenue forecast for the current budget year will meet spending demands, Eckstrom said.

Eckstrom said he's been assured that meeting will be held before Wednesday's Budget and Control Board meeting.

At the budget board meeting, Eckstrom said he would "call for our spending plans to be reduced" to match expected income. That would mean adjusting to pay off the $177 million deficit, the comptroller general said.

During the last fiscal year, the budget board issued $518 million in midyear cuts, Eckstrom said.

But it's unclear how much support Eckstrom will have from the budget board's other four members for immediate cuts.

Eckstrom says that Gov. Mark Sanford, the board's chairman, is "calling on state financial leaders to promptly eliminate" the deficit.

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said Sanford will discuss how he wants to deal with the state deficit at the budget board meeting next week.

"You can rest assured this administration is going to deal with these deficits," Folks said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said he has always been "opposed to quick budgetary cuts."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said he expects the Legislature at some point to "start restoring the money" to cover the deficit as it writes future budgets. "I fully expect us to do it," he said.

Delays in acting on the deficit threaten the state's credit rating, Eckstrom said.

Budget board member and State Treasurer Grady Patterson regularly talks with credit rating agencies, but was not immediately available for comment.