Gov. Mark Sanford will not close the Governor's Mansion this year -- thanks to cost-cutting and $100,000 in private donations.

"My wife tells me we have enough money to cross the bridge," said Sanford, who last week threatened to close the mansion because its budget had been nearly exhausted.

To reduce costs, the Sanfords have cut some full-time positions, in favor of part-time help, and are now hosting more official guests for breakfast -- a cheaper alternative to dinner and drinks.

Sanford said he and his wife Jenny have appreciated the gifts ranging from $10 checks from retirees, to grits for the rest of the year from the Adluh Flour Co., to $5,000 gifts from businesses.

"We've been dealt a number of poor hands, whether it's the budget overall or the Governor's Mansion scenario," Sanford said. "They weren't ideal choices, but that was the cards you were dealt."

Sanford said he was glad to have been spared "a choice I didn't want to make."

Sanford had considered closing the public areas of the mansion through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The Republican governor said his predecessor, Democrat Jim Hodges, spent almost all the money allocated for personnel, food and supplies.

For the 2002-03 budget year, the General Assembly appropriated $265,860 for payroll; $252,455 had been spent by Feb. 1. The checkbook -- for items from food to cleaning supplies -- had $69,000; $66,000 had been spent by Jan. 15, the day Sanford took office.

Hodges has said the mansion is chronically short on funding and governors traditionally transfer money from other accounts under their control to cover costs. Sanford refused to move money from other programs, such as foster care management, to cover the mansion's day-to-day costs.

Through Monday, a private Mansion Fund had raised $100,000 from individuals and companies to shore up the mansion's budget.

Jenny Sanford -- who as first lady runs the mansion -- estimates she will need another $20,000 to make budget through the end of the year. The Sanfords made their payroll Saturday for the 11-employee staff, but Jenny Sanford said they will be relying on private donations to make the next payday, March 1, and pay further expenses, including food.

Jenny Sanford convened the first meeting of the new Mansion Commission on Monday morning, with a tour of the mansion, the Lace and Boylston houses on the complex, and the icy 9.5-acre mansion gardens.

The governor appoints commissioners to oversee mansion operations. Three of the seven commissioners, including the first lady, are newly appointed.

The commission gave its approval for re-opening the Lace and Boylston houses and gardens to rent for private functions.

Until the mid-1990s, individuals were able to rent parts of the complex for weddings, teas or receptions. During the renovation of the State House in the mid-1990s and the mansion in the late 1990s, the commission stopped that practice.

Jenny Sanford said she hopes reopening the houses will make the entire complex more visible to the public. In the process, reopening the facilities also could raise some money for maintenance of the historic buildings.

The mansion commission discussed other ideas for raising or saving money. They include:

• Holding a designer showcase, asking decorators to take on the design of rooms in the Boylston and Lace Houses, and charging admission for touring them;

• Hosting a contest between garden clubs;

• Bringing state prison inmates back to work in the mansion. Hodges quit using the trustees after guards were charged with allowing inmates to have sex on the mansion grounds and in the governor's temporary residence.

No decision has been made about those proposals and no estimate or goals for fund raising have been set.

Mark Sanford said he was not excited about raising private money to pay for a public building. He said he tried to avoid the appearance of any undue influence by not making any fund-raising calls himself. He also asked the mansion fund organizers to limit donations to $5,000.