COLUMBIA--Budget crisis or not, South Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday made it clear there will be a monument to fallen police officers on Statehouse grounds.

By a 89-21 margin, House members voted to override Gov. Mark Sanford's veto of the resolution authorizing the $500,000 memorial to be built -- and vented some frustration about the surprise veto.

Meanwhile, the Senate, still in budget deliberations, amended its $5 billion state budget bill to include a provision requiring the monument money to be spent.

Most lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have gone to bat for the monument -- a 40-foot column that will have the name of fallen law enforcement officers inscribed on it -- which Sanford said the state couldn't afford in the current budget crisis. The state faces a shortfall of about $1 billion. The governor said funds for a monument should be raised privately.

House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, argued that the money was set aside for the monument last year and that it comes from the Department of Public Safety's building fund. In other words, it is not recurring money that could be used to fund ongoing budget needs.

Lawmakers were not initially sure they could muster the two-thirds vote needed to overturn the veto, but supporters of the measure were able to rally enough support.

"It's hard to argue about the virtue of honoring men and women who died protecting us," said Rep. Shirley Hinson, R-Goose Creek, the bill's sponsor.

The governor's office said Wednesday that the money would be better spent on critical law enforcement needs and that supporters of the monument -- Sanford included -- should have had the chance to try and raise private money.

"One of the things that makes change so difficult to achieve is when there's an unwillingness to try," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said.

Some Democrats sided with Sanford, arguing the money should go elsewhere. Rep. Harry Ott, D-St. Matthews, said officers in his district told him that cameras in squad cars and bulletproof vests would be more helpful.

"We've got to start doing what's right, not what a handful of people tell us to do," Ott said.

Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, noted that there is already a monument to fallen officers at the criminal justice academy in Columbia, but he still voted to override the veto.

Republicans were critical of Sanford vetoing the resolution without warning the Legislature that he had a problem with the measure.

"When you get a bill from point A all the way to point Z and then the governor vetoes it," Hinson said, "it's so frustrating."

Harrell, who also spoke against the surprise veto, offered legislation to allow the General Assembly to take the remaining $2.4 million in Public Safety's building fund and allocate it to police officers in the form of pay raises. But he noted that would be one-time money going to an ongoing expense. The source of revenue for the monument is perfect, he said, because it is capital dollars for a capital project.

"There's a lot of frustration over having the governor veto something at the end of the process rather than getting involved in the beginning," Harrell said.

There is no timetable for building the monument. That is up to a Statehouse grounds committee. Also, the governor's veto has to be overridden in the Senate, but most lawmakers say that likely will not be a problem.