On Wednesday, House budget writers appeared to be close to wrapping up work on the state's $6.5 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Sanford wants legislators to spend no more than $5.9 billion. He wants to use the rest to repay raids on trust and reserve accounts and the balance returned to taxpayers.

During Wednesday's meeting, the governor issued a news release criticizing the developing plans and backing that criticism up with remarks from House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith; House Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison and House Labor, Commerce and Industry Chairman Harry Cato.

All three Republicans ran for House speaker last year, eventually dropping out to clear the way for Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. Harrell's ascension opened the door for Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, to become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

To "issue a press release that is attacking the committee like that before they've taken any votes is just raw politics," Harrell said.

Cooper called Sanford's news release "a personal attack on me and on the speaker."

Sanford and the Legislature seemed to be getting along swimmingly as the session began last month, but Wednesday's news release had folks talking about a divide reopening between the two sides.

"To try and make this a fight between the governor and the General Assembly is to confuse night and day," said Sanford's spokesman Joel Sawyer. "This is really simple. It's about spending."

Sanford's election-year news release left Republicans wondering what was happening with their leadership and forced the cancellation of Thursday's budget meeting. "I think some in the House are headed in the wrong direction when it comes to keeping an eye on the taxpayers," the governor said in his statement.

Democrats were amused. Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins, said Republicans looked like they were eating each other and he was more than happy to "pass out ketchup."

GOP members huddled for an hour in a locked room with guards at the doors to keep Democrats, reporters and the public out. Harrison said the meeting was intended to help Republicans get on the same page on general spending priorities.

Charleston Rep. John Graham Altman said the meeting was about his fellow Republicans demanding answers from Smith, Harrison and Cato. "I feel betrayed by three insurgents in the Republican Party in the House," Altman said. "We try to work together collegially."

The group emerged without changing or embracing budget priorities but with an "overriding feeling" that "Dan Cooper and Ways and Means Committee have the support of the caucus," Harrell said.

Sanford may have gained a little ground, however.

The tentative budget plans would put $66 million into repaying trust accounts, less than half the $173 million Sanford wanted applied to repayments. On Thursday, Cooper said up to $145 million could go to repayments.

He said legislators then must decide whether to pump more than $390 million into Sanford's tax rebates. Cooper said that would mean eliminating $51 million for state employee raises, $52 million for school buses and fuel and $9 million tied to paying for more nursing home beds.

Smith, Cato and Harrison said they didn't know how their statements, given to a Sanford aide, would be used. House Majority Leader Jim Merrill said Sanford's "press machine" organized the statements "as a unified attack on the legislative process and members of the House leadership."

Harrison said he never wanted to undermine Cooper, Harrell or the committee's work and that to imply that "is a gross misrepresentation."

"I had no idea the other guys were involved," Cato said.

He said his remarks were "misinterpreted and misused," but he stands by calls to restrain spending. "Did he (Sanford) score some political points? Yeah, he probably did. But that doesn't bother me."