Senators were still debating the state's budget at midnight.

Two controversial issues caused the delay, one of them the result of Gov. Mark Sanford's call to pay down the state's $155 million debt with any and all surplus funds collected this year.

This issue, along with a reconsidered bill to hold a statewide, non-binding referendum dealing with property tax relief, managed to keep progress at a standstill for the state's $16.7 billion budget, $5.3 billion of which is state-controlled money.

A group of senators, most of them Democrats, fought for the second day to pass an amendment that would earmark an estimated $130 million in surplus funds to pay toward the state's debt, acquired in the 2001-2002 fiscal year.

They were opposed by a group of veteran senators led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, who refused to cut services to pay off the entire debt this year.

Leatherman has said such a proposal would knock the budget out of balance. The proposal, along with a decision earlier in the day to not sell off some $15 million in property, would leave a $145 million hole in the document passed out of the Senate Finance Committee last month.

Senators also have failed to find $6 million lost when legislation allowing an expansion at Barnwell County nuclear waste facility was shot down, though Leatherman said such a small amount could be dealt with easily.

"I too, believe we need to pay the debt off," Leatherman said Friday. "But do we pay that debt off at the expense of education? I say no. Do we pay the debt off at the expense of Medicaid? I say no. We would all like to pay it off fast, but do we pay it off at the expense of the people in this state?"

It is an odd twist, with the majority of Democrats fighting on the side of fiscal conservatism and many Republicans fighting to prevent cutting services.

Sen. John Drummond, D-Greenwood, said there was a lot of politics going on, most of it under the surface. On Friday, he pleaded with his fellow senators to work together.

"Let's come together on this thing and go home," he said.

Several of the proponents of using the surplus, such as Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, are in favor of increasing cigarette taxes to cover the shortfall in the budget. Most senators, however, agree the Republican-dominated Senate will never pass such a employees an across-the-board 3 percent raise, fully funds the state Conservation Bank, increases the budget of the state Department of Natural Resources and avoids cutting the Corrections Department.

Those moves were made possible after the state Board of Economic Advisors announced the surplus, which senators quickly used to shore up an almost identical hole in the budget.

On Monday, Gov. Mark Sanford's called upon the Senate to adhere to South Carolina's constitution and use all of the surplus to pay off the debt while money is available.

On Friday, senators reconsidered a proposal, approved the day before, which would allow a non-binding statewide referendum in November. The referendum would have asked voters if they would favor increasing the state's sales tax to provide property tax relief.

Reconsidering the bill essentially reversed the earlier vote. Senators argued for hours before carrying that measure over, along with the surplus proposal.

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