OUR STATE WENT through nearly a decade of wildly irresponsible budgeting — overcommitting during the boom times of the 1990s and then, faced with mounting bills for those commitments when the boom busted, raiding trust funds and running unconstitutional deficits to patch things over.

Lawmakers have slowly been digging out as the economy improved, but now economists warn that the boom-and-bust cycle soon will start back up, as flat revenue growth crashes head-on with steep increases in expenses for maintaining current programs.

It is against that backdrop that Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed a budget that he describes as the final installment in a three-year process of putting the books in order. It would pay back all the trust funds that were raided, wipe out the deficit and all but eliminate so-called annualizations, which are created when the state uses surplus funds and other one-time money to pay for ongoing programs.

Those changes are essential, and the General Assembly should adopt them, rather than using one-time money to expand programs and services. We need to get those old debts paid off (and annualizations act as debts even if they don’t technically meet the definition) no matter what; the fact that we could be facing more tough times ahead is even more reason to make that a top budget priority this year.

The main reason South Carolina had a harder time than most states getting through the last recession was that we started off in the hole. While we’re not facing another recession, it could feel like one to lawmakers if they don’t find a way to slow down the growth of Medicaid, start making difficult choices in other programs or, more likely, do both.

Some of those tough choices may need to be made this year. Mr. Sanford’s budget, for instance, was largely put together before Circuit Judge Thomas Cooper ruled that the state is not providing adequate early intervention programs for poor children; rather than responding to that ruling through his budget, the governor identified $38 million he would consider redirecting toward such programs, and promised a more complete proposal in coming weeks. But even if the Legislature agreed with his ideas, the bulk of the money — $26 million from consolidating small school districts — wouldn’t be available to spend next year; and it’s not at all clear that $38 million will be enough.

Just as those who would use surplus money to expand services are off base, Mr. Sanford is off base when he proposes to use some of the money for tax rebates. The state has billions of dollars in unmet one-time needs — from new school buses and fuel to run them to road and bridge repairs and maintenance on crumbling buildings. And Mr. Sanford has not made the case that South Carolinians are overtaxed. Although he likes to spout numbers that seem to say otherwise, the fact is that we come out in the middle nationally in terms of total taxes and fees paid; leave out the fees, and our state ranks near the bottom in terms of taxes as a share of personal income (42nd), as a share of the gross state product (37th) and as a share of total taxable resources (40th).

Lawmakers certainly don’t need to overcommit the state again by creating programs they know they can’t afford to continue in future years; but they also don’t need to cut taxes when they have a mountain of obligations they have not yet met.