COLUMBIA, S.C. - One of the first things legislators will see when they return to their desks Tuesday is Gov. Mark Sanford's 328-page state budget.

Apart from a spending plan, Sanford's big blue budget book urges them to restructure state government and cut payrolls. House budget writers have been at work for two months hearing from agencies about what they'd like to spend or spare from cuts.

Those meetings resume this week. They're a likely sounding board for Sanford's proposal to bridge a projected $350 million budget shortfall through restructuring, selling assets, tapping surplus agency money and targeted spending reductions.

While legislators loathe cutting state jobs, they're more likely than ever to have to do that this year with their spending plans. Three years of tough economic times have emptied reserve accounts and made it more likely that payrolls will shrink.

Sanford's plan nudges budget writers in that direction, alluding to job cuts. For instance, his budget calls for making permanent small-scale layoffs at the at the Division of Motor Vehicles and the Commerce Department last year. Job losses elsewhere aren't too hard to see between the lines of restructuring and program cuts.

For instance, the governor calls for cutting state spending at 17 state agencies by 10 percent or more. Six of those agencies would lose nearly all state funding over time, including the Museum Commission, which Sanford wants to become privately funded; two two-year University of South Carolina campuses; and the John de la Howe School, a McCormick facility for children who have trouble living at home.

How many state workers would lose jobs under the proposal is unclear.

If half of the $63 million Sanford calls for in restructuring savings and program cuts came out of payrolls, then nearly 1,000 state employees earning an average of $32,000 a year would be out of work.

Legislators will have to decide whether Sanford's education restructuring plan moves forward. He calls for moving the Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School for at-risk youths and School for the Deaf and Blind under the Education Department's control while eliminating John de la Howe.

Sanford wants a 10 percent cut in Education Department administrative spending. "A 10 percent reduction would mean" layoffs, agency spokesman Jim Foster said.

At a meeting Wednesday, education officials will have a chance to talk again about their spending needs and may face questions about Sanford's budget.

To increase basic per-student spending, Sanford wants the agency to cut nearly a dozen programs and tap $5.9 million in cash surplus.

There are many problems with both ideas, Foster said.

For instance, the governor's proposal would eliminate school bus safety programs and money to replace worn-out school buses and the surplus that Sanford envisions is includes money the agency collects from fingerprinting teachers and offering high-school diploma equivalency tests, which is used to repay the FBI and buy the equivalency exams, Foster said.