Gov. Mark Sanford proposed a $5.3 billion state budget Wednesday, calling for more money for K-12 education, lower income taxes and beefed-up law enforcement.

The proposal also calls for cuts at state colleges and elimination of many state programs.

Sanford’s budget hits many of the same notes as the one he proposed last year, complete with lengthy justifications for restructuring state government and trimming existing programs.

Reaction from lawmakers and education officials was mixed, with some scrambling to digest the mammoth 346-page document.

“I think it’s an excellent beginning, and we will take it from here,” said Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, who chairs the powerful House budget-writing committee.

This is the second budget Sanford has proposed. Last year, he broke with tradition by presenting a highly detailed spending plan instead of a mere summary of favored programs.

The budget he released Wednesday goes even further, indexing more than 1,400 individual state government functions.

“This is a budget that plows new ground,” Sanford said. “Budgets traditionally ask the question of where do you spend the money, but not what do you spend it on.”

Sanford’s budget would:

• Spend an additional $100 million on K-12 education

• Increase teacher pay while cutting yearly bonuses to most future nationally certified teachers by $4,500

• Boost Medicaid by $47 million

• Lower the top income tax bracket from 7 percent to 4.75 percent over six years

• Add 100 state troopers and other law enforcement officers

• Restore more than $150 million to state trust funds raided during past budget deficits.

The plan also calls for axing 67 programs over a wide swath of state agencies, a move Sanford says will save more than $160 million.

“This is a budget I think moves us toward getting our fiscal house in order,” he said.

Questions remain about a plan to boost per-pupil education funding under the Education Finance Act formula.

Sanford proposed increasing per-pupil spending to $2,213, partly by transferring money from existing education programs, something he calls “backpacking.”

Debbie Elmore, a spokeswoman for the S.C. School Boards Association, said many education officials want to see more details.

“At initial glance, we are encouraged by the increase in the (funding formula),” she said. “But we’re still trying to determine where the dollars are coming from. Is it true new money, or is he simply reshuffling the deck?”

Sanford says changing the funding formula merely allows local districts more flexibility in how they spend education dollars.

The proposal also includes a pitch for offering tax credits to families who send their children to private schools. But it does not account for how that would be paid for.

Democrats were quick to rip the notion of shifting tax dollars away from public schools.

“The bottom line is there’s a continued failure on key issues, like support for public education,” said Rep. James Smith, D-Richland.

State colleges might have fared worst of all in the budget plan.

Sanford again is calling for steep cuts in Clemson University’s extension services and other programs, closing USC branch campuses in Union and Allendale counties, and trimming the budgets of the state’s three research universities by 1 percent.

And while other state agencies would get money earmarked for pay raises, employees at the state colleges would get none.

“I would have liked to see at least a modicum of funding for salaries,” said Commission on Higher Education director Conrad Festa.

Democrats in the House and Senate released a joint statement decrying cuts to colleges, which they say would lead to tuition increases.

But that criticism was balanced by praise for Sanford’s plan to spend millions on disease prevention and hire more state troopers.

Sanford, who drew heat last year for not briefing Democrats on his budget proposal, made sure to meet with members of both parties Wednesday afternoon.

While the General Assembly is unlikely to adopt all his proposals, he said anything he can do to better sell them this year is time well spent.

“I don’t think there’s any magic bullet in how you approach any legislative body,” he said. “You just keep on pushing.”

Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com. Staff writers Bill Robinson and Jennifer Talhelm contributed to this report.