COLUMBIA -- Gov. Mark Sanford spent his summer collecting ideas to pitch to state lawmakers.

Now, his time in the bullpen is almost over.

This fall and winter, South Carolina residents will see whether Sanford's much touted agency budget hearings, his Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance, and his behind-the-scenes efforts to form alliances with legislators will help him achieve his goals.

Legislative politics and the potentially worsening budget crisis could determine his success or failure.

Regardless, Republicans express optimism.

"We anticipate that the learning curve is over," said Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

No later than January, Sanford will submit his first budget to the General Assembly. He will continue to lobby for an ambitious government restructuring plan that would give his relatively weak executive branch far greater powers.

Most likely, he will push for alternative sentencing options to relieve prison overcrowding; block funding for public schools; and for an array of other changes designed to improve efficiency and reduce the scope of state government. He also could influence legislative debate on Medicaid and tax reform.

Supporters say the governor's goals cannot be accomplished quickly.

"If one is a visionary and wants to steer a country or a state, one doesn't do it on a dime," said Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia. "It takes a Herculean effort just to help people understand where you want the state to go."

A UNIFIED FRONT

Sanford began the summer trying to communicate his vision to Republican leaders.

As a result, said Speaker of the House David Wilkins, R-Greenville, expect to see much greater cooperation between the Republican leadership and the governor.

"This is the first time in a century that Republicans control both the executive and legislative branch," Wilkins said. "It is our time and our place to make changes and deliver, to move the state forward. If we don't, there is no one to blame but us."

Wilkins said Republicans discussed forming a more "unified front" with Sanford. They also issued an invitation never before offered to previous governors.

"The House Ways and Means Committee is usually halfway through the writing of its budget proposal by the time the governor submits his in January," Harrell said. "I asked Mark to go ahead and send us his agency budget proposals this fall, as he comes up with them. ... I don't know of a legislature that has ever said to a governor , 'Please give it to us early.' If he does that, he will have a lot more influence over the budget process than most."

Sanford could not be reached for comment for this story. His spokesman Will Folks declined to comment on Harrell's invitation.

On the surface, it seems to fit nicely with Sanford's goal to increase his power. But Bob Botsch, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina at Aiken, said the move also could "be an effort to get the governor on the pain train before it leaves the station."

Botsch referred to the increasingly dire consequences predicted for state agencies if revenue falls short again this year, and legislators continue to cut budgets.

Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater, said the real test of Sanford's leadership would be his willingness to accept responsibility for the situation and make difficult, perhaps unpopular, choices.

"Enough time has passed and enough has happened that it is time for him to stop blaming Gov. (Jim) Hodges for everything," Moore said. "And talking about how everything has to be revenue neutral is not going to solve the problem."

Bruce Ransom, chairman of the policy studies program at Clemson University's Strom Thurmond Institute, said budget crises in other states have prompted a number of Republican governors to soften their stance against tax increases.

Republicans say Sanford is unlikely to waiver.

In addition to meeting with party leaders, Sanford reportedly has worked closely with his cabinet agency directors to plan strategy in recent months. Commerce Department spokeswoman Clare Morris said the governor talks daily with Commerce Secretary Bob Faith.

"Both are going on a trade mission to China in October," Morris said. "They are talking specifically to Chinese companies about textiles. They are trying to figure out how to communicate with the Chinese to lessen the jobs going to China."

Sanford questioned Faith and other agency directors in a series of budget hearings this summer. Folks said the governor ordered the meetings to "get a jump start on the budget process so that he can indeed be proactive with legislators in out lining his initiatives."

Scott Huffman, a political scientist at Winthrop University, said he suspects the hearings largely were an attempt to improve Sanford's relations with legislators.

Rep. Mac Toole, R-West Columbia, has attended all but a few of the sessions.

"The governor seems to have a straightforward management style," Toole said, adding that the hearings impressed him overall.

MIXED MESSAGE

But others have called them a "dog and pony show." Still others are confused and unsettled by some of the questions posed by the governor and staff.

"Some of the questions showed the lack of grasp some have on how complicated and underfunded education is," Robert Scarborough, executive director of the S.C. Association of School Administrators, said of the Department of Education hearing. "One staff member asked 'Why are we spending so much money on guidance counselors?' We have half the number of guidance counselors that the rest of the nation does, and the rest of the nation has half the number that they need."

The questions sent a confusing message, Scarborough said. Sanford's own economic task force emphasized that improving education was the key to the state's economic development. The task force recommended that the governor reduce the 30 percent dropout rate by encouraging efforts to reduce teen pregnancy, teen drug and alcohol abuse and gang membership, all problems addressed by school guidance counselors.

Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, said he was concerned that the governor or others might propose unwarranted restructuring "just to say we're making changes."

For example, observers said the governor seemed particularly harsh in his questioning of the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services.

"Others states look to that agency as a classic example of public and private cooperation," Hayes said of the agency. "It is considered a model system."

Scarborough said Sanford's Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance impressed him more than the budget hearings.

Sanford created the commission, comprising 14 business people, in June to study the way agencies manage operations and to suggest efficiencies he could incorporate in his platform.

"I took part in one of the (commission) meetings, and there seems to be a lot of support for taking a comprehensive look at regulations and mandates that keep schools from focusing on children," Scarborough said.

Already, the group has decided to recommend dramatic realignment of the Department of Social Services, Commission Chairman Ken Wingate said. Many recommendations will concern systemwide changes.

"At the agency level we have computers that can't communicate with one another," Wingate said. "We have 75 different accounting systems in state government that aren't interchangeable."

Such massive system improvements could require sizable initial investments. Sanford's firm stance against tax increases could help insure that some of the more innovative elements of his own platform remain unrealized.

But Courson said he was certain Sanford would not veer from his "no tax" pledge.

"Those of us who are conservative like what we see," Courson said.