(Columbia) May 20, 2003 - The South Carolina Senate adjourned a rare Monday session without making any significant progress on the $5 billion state budget for the coming year. Senators are in their third week of debate on the spending plan.

So far they have roundly rejected every attempt to raise taxes to cover education and Medicaid programs. Senators still expect to give their version of the budget plan its third reading by Thursday. It will then go to a conference committee, but how it will look when it hits the governor's desk remains anybody's guess.

The lawmakers spent most of the day talking behind closed doors, and ten-minute recesses stretch into an hour and a half Monday afternoon, with senators like John Land (D) Clarendon, meeting privately to continue their struggle with the state budget, "Unless we fund education, unless we fund health care and tamper with education, I can't vote for this particular budget."

Lexington Senator Jake Knotts (R) made note of the dwindling time on the calendar, "If we don't do something this week, it's going to be a bad situation, because the House and the Senate conferees have to have, I would say, about two weeks."

Governor Mark Sanford has been no stranger to the State House lobby, but he might be just as mystified as everyone else about how lawmakers will cut spending or increase revenues enough to cover a $262 million gap in the budget, "The answer is I don't know. I don't think anybody knows. I think that this is one of the points in the process where it just takes a while. A lot of ideas being kicked back and forth."

One senator told WIS News 10 the current holdup involves philosophical splits within both parties over whether to increase taxes.

The Senate made some progress on the budget late last week, making it through a second reading of the plan, after two weeks of being bogged down, largely due to attempts by Democrats to force Republicans to do more for schools and health programs.

Democrats in both chambers are outnumbered, but they've been a thorn in the side of the majority party on the budget issue, especially in the Senate. Democratic senators have been trying to push per-pupil spending well above the $1643 level set by the House.

Republicans refused to do that without a way to pay for those increases. Among the ideas killed off so far include increases in the cigarette tax and state sales tax.

The Democrats have also floated ideas about higher fees on things like traffic tickets, there's still talk of temporary tax increases and a cigarette tax hike is still not out of the picture. Governor Sanford and Republicans supported a 53 cent cigarette tax increase as a trade-off for lowering the state income tax over a period of time. This week Republicans could try to pass just the cigarette tax by itself.

Also today, the Board of Economic Advisors met and say state's revenues are running only $8 million above its revised estimate for current fiscal year.

By Jack Kuenzie
Updated 8:40am by Chris Rees with AP