South Carolina finished its 2003 fiscal year with a deficit of less than $70 million, Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom said Tuesday.

The $68.8 million shortfall would be less than 1.5 percent of the state's $5 billion budget and a fraction of the $248.8 million deficit at the end of fiscal 2002.

"It's not as bad as the situation was last year," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. "It's still something that we'll have to deal with."

Preliminary calculations show the state will exhaust its $38.8 million general reserve fund and still have a deficit of nearly $30 million, Eckstrom said. Detailed numbers will be released this afternoon, Eckstrom said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman said he expects the deficit to hit $25 million after emptying the state's rainy day account. Still, that is good news because "it does indicate that finally we're turning around with the revenue coming into state government," he said.

In a $5 billion budget, coming up $25 million short is not that large of a problem because it is such a small percentage of the overall budget that there is no way to forecast it, Leatherman said.

The 2003 deficit looks to be smaller than some expected. For instance, the National Conference of State Legislators said in a report last month that information South Carolina provided suggested a 3.6 percent deficit. That works out to more than $150 million.

The same report said South Carolina and Wisconsin were the only states in the nation expected to report year-end deficits.

Eckstrom, Harrell, Leatherman and the other two members of the state Budget and Control Board will meet next week to approve a plan to deal with the shortfall.

Gov. Mark Sanford is the budget board's chairman, but he would not comment on the deficit. "It would be irresponsible for this office to comment until the comptroller general officially closes the books," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said.

"I know the governor is very unhappy about it," said Eckstrom, who has spoken to Sanford about the deficit.

Eckstrom said he expects to tap state's general deposit account to cover the remaining shortfall.