It's no surprise that the complaints about many of the programs affected by the more than $200 million in proposed land sales, cutbacks and consolidations began as soon as the governor's budget was released. The budget not only calls for a number of agencies to be merged but also several colleges to eventually be closed, state cars to be sold and jobs to be eliminated. Like it or not, something has to give when the state faces an estimated $350 million revenue shortfall.

Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman got it right when he observed on the day the budget was released last week that the Legislature had been spending "like drunken sailors." We hope he's right in his observation that the lawmakers are ready to sober up and won't, for example, continue funding new programs with non-recurring revenue.

The state's dire fiscal problems of recent years, created both by the economy and unwise spending, have had one good result. For the first time in memory, the Legislature will be looking at a spending proposal that is grounded in true zero-based budgeting. That couldn't have happened had Gov. Sanford, along with a citizens' committee, not spent much of the past year analyzing the spending of every single agency of state government. The governor's budget pinpoints the needlessly expensive duplications, and recommends ways to provide certain essential services more efficiently.

The second medical school has long been the most obvious example of a frill this state can't afford. But that's by far not the only excess. As the governor's budget notes, this state has 33 colleges and universities, operating on 79 different campuses. Further, the budget document contends that the total cost of higher education in the state is 110 percent of the national average compared to 86 percent for Georgia and 82 percent for North Carolina.

And as for overall spending on state government, according to the budget, South Carolina currently is at 130 percent of the national average with income levels at about 80 percent of that average. Time to raise taxes? Hardly. Certainly not, as the governor notes, until some of the structural problems, including duplications and inefficiencies are remedied.

Along with the cuts, the governor is recommending some modest increases in a few programs. Additional funding for secondary education -- by diverting some administrative lottery money -- and proposed increases for the hard-pressed Department of Corrections are the right priorities.

We don't doubt that every single cut the governor is proposing will have its defenders. Ironically, even Sen. Leatherman found himself pledging to defend a $100,000 allocation for an eight-horse caisson team only a few days after the budget was released. According to our report Monday, the governor has pledged to help raise private funds to continue the program.

Certainly the Legislature has the right to debate, and accept or reject any of the governor's proposals. But here's the bottom line. If lawmakers reject the governor's recommendations, they'll have to cut or find the revenue elsewhere.

Legislators have learned the hard way that there can be no more budget deficits, not if they are to maintain the state's vital AAA credit rating. Election year or not, reality requires the returning Legislature to prepare for some very sober, tight-fisted budget decision-making.