COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford tried to head off plans to put dorm rooms on the Greenville Technical College campus, but lost when the State Budget and Control Board approved the 400-unit building on a 3-2 vote.

"I think we made a very significant mistake here," Sanford said afterward.

The dorm, which would house students and people attending a variety of seminars the college offers, will compete with private landlords who have plenty of open rental properties, Sanford said.

"The Greenville market has the highest vacancy rate in the country - 12.3 percent - in multifamily residences," he said, citing a real estate company's report.

The dorm is being paid for by the college's foundation - not taxpayer money - Budget and Control Board member and Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said.

But Sanford said taxpayer money is involved because tax-exempt bonds will be used in the project and a residential facility has other costs, like insurance and security, that may end up costing taxpayers.

But "it's all being done in the private sector. There ought be more public-private efforts to meet needs that we've got in the state," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said.

In the past, Sanford has championed similar efforts. "That's why his position surprised me. Normally he is in favor public-private partnerships," Harrell said.

Sanford also has supported the Corrections Department running its own chicken egg operations instead of paying private companies for that product, Harrell said.

Sanford said dorm rooms don't need to be a fixture of two-year colleges. But Harrell and Leatherman said need, not past practice, should guide those decisions.

Sanford and Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom voted against the dorms. State Treasurer Grady Patterson, Leatherman and Harrell voted for the project.