COLUMBIA--With the slow pace of budget deliberations in the Senate, taxpayers may have to swallow the cost of an extended legislative session.

"We're aware that that may happen," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston.

It's possible to finish work on the $5.2 billion budget before the June 5 adjournment, said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston. But that would leave no time to deal with possible vetoes.

"If the General Assembly wants to handle vetoes, we'll have to have some extended veto session in June," he said.

Spending about $25,000 a day on an extended session would come as other agencies are trying to find ways to cut their budgets to deal with current-year budget cuts of 8.7 percent since December.

Furious budget battles in states throughout the country are forcing lawmakers to work well past the end of their regular sessions.

The delays and gridlock come as no surprise to many lawmakers, since states overall are struggling with their worst fiscal crisis in decades. Some compare it to the years of the Great Depression.

Financial analysts estimate that, overall, states have faced $78 billion in expected shortfalls for the coming fiscal year.

Lawmakers have been cutting spending, borrowing money or raising revenue to overcome all that red ink. And next year could well be the fourth straight year of weakening revenues.

Last year was the first time in seven years the S.C. House and Senate left Columbia on the first Thursday of June without having to come back for budget work.

When senators return to their desks Tuesday, they'll be far behind the pace set in recent years and still locked in a debate on funding education programs with a sales tax increase.

Since 1996, the budget only once has cleared the Senate after May 11. In 2001, the Senate didn't finish its version of the bill until May 18. A final House-Senate conference bill wasn't completed until June 21 in an extended session.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman expects substantial progress on the $5.2 billion spending plan this week. Last week, he was frustrated by Senate Democrats' maneuvering to force commitments on education spending.

Deliberations also were delayed a week as senators took time to pass a Senate redistricting plan.