In an extraordinarily tight budget year, the latter state-spending priority should take precedence over the former. That's why Gov. Mark Sanford has vetoed a bill appropriating $500,000 for a memorial to officers who made the final sacrifice on the thin blue line.

State Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York, co-sponsor of the bill, told The (Columbia) State newspaper that $500,000 in a $5 billion budget is a relatively minor expenditure, and argued that the memorial was "well worth the price." Rep. Simrill also predicted that the General Assembly will override the governor's veto.

If it does, that would be a well-intentioned mistake. While the governor supports the memorial concept, and has even offered to help raise private money for it, he correctly points out that this is not the right year to pay for such a project with state revenue.

As Gov. Sanford explained, with the Department of Public Safety and the State Law Enforcement Division struggling to make ends meet, at this point that $500,000 would be better spent on helping the police who are still alive than on honoring those police who made the final sacrifice to protect and serve.

Surely the officers who gave their lives to enforce the law would agree.