COLUMBIA--Working late into Thursday night, frazzled members of the state House of Representatives waded through the last of several hundred amendments to pass a $5 billion 2003-04 budget.

It was the expected outcome of a long week that began with Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, explaining the 500-plus pages of the appropriations bill, which is smaller than last year's by about $400 million.

Despite the worst financial situation any of these lawmakers has ever faced, House members managed a few laudable feats.

The biggest accomplishment may be the one most likely to go unrecognized by most people: the reduction in annualizations. That seemingly innocent term actually refers to what may be the crack cocaine of government budgeting.

Annualizations are ongoing projects or expenses that are funded with one-time money. It's like you hit the $500 lottery and use the money to make the first payment on a new Lexus (OK, a used one).

Four years ago, the state was committed to $564 million in annualizations. In the budget passed by the House on Thursday, that figure is down to $55 million (it's nearly impossible to go cold turkey). The temptation was to go the other way, but House members avoided it.

But as tough as the budget process was (and this still has to get through the Senate), it seemed House members came up with new places to reconfigure just when they needed to. On Tuesday, House leaders announced they had found a way to come up with money to fund Medicaid by restructuring the state's tobacco bonds. On Wednesday, they announced a way to fund HOPE scholarships fully by cutting the lottery's administration budget.

Harrell said the idea to reconfigure the lottery budget to restore all the HOPE scholarships was an example of lawmakers bending to the will of the people.

"We try hard to listen to the people of our state and respond to what they want."

The most ironic of all proposed budget "cuts:" Rep. John "Bubber" Snow, D-Hemingway, sought to save some state money by making it illegal to use state or federal Medicaid dollars to circumcise baby boys.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, did not even bother putting the vote to the scoreboard. On a voice vote, the male members of the House boomed a resounding "No" to the idea.

FRENCH DRESSING-DOWN

-- The Senate is holding a resolution from Rep. Bob Leach, R-Greenville, that calls for the General Assembly to "reflect on 200 years of relations with France" and express "regret over the recent actions of France in opposition to American foreign policy" in regards to Iraq.

While there is some skepticism that this sweeping legislation will clear up the country's problems with that nitpicky United Nations crowd, some Statehouse observers are openly wary of the Legislature giving diplomatic advice. After all, the General Assembly can't even make the Charleston County delegation get along.

VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

-- Rep. John Graham Altman III, R-Charleston, filed an ethics complaint with Wilkins over a vote he says was cast illegally from Rep. Seth Whipper's machine March 6.

The vote in question: a scoreboard vote to table a motion to adjourn debate on the veto override of a bill combining Charles-ton County's Election Commission and Board of Voter Registration. Republicans tried to force the vote when Whipper was out, but Whipper, a North Charleston Democrat, returned. The question: Did he return soon enough, or did someone vote for him?

The Post and Courier reviewed a tape of ETV's broadcast of the session and found no conclusive evidence. On the tape, the board is shown with Whipper voting "no" and then there is a pan of the crowd that stops with Rep. Robert Brown, D-Hollywood, on the right edge of the screen. (Whipper is to Brown's left.)

After the vote, Altman is heard to shout: "The machine shows Mr. Whipper voted. He's not present. He hasn't been here today."

Next, the camera shows Wilkins on the podium pointing to the back of the chamber and saying, "I see him." Wilkins points to the back-right corner of the chamber, while Whipper sits to the left. It's the Zapruder film of the Statehouse.

Whipper said he walked in just in time for the vote and calls the whole thing a distraction. "What Mr. Altman is trying to do is cast some doubt, raise a specter regarding the outcome of the veto override vote. It's just a waste of effort on his part. ... Besides, they say I wasn't in there, so who are they investigating?"

There is no timetable for the Ethics Committee to take up the case, but it likely will come in the next few weeks.

GOOD FOR A LAUGH

-- Every Cabinet member's a comedian, it seems. When Gov. Mark Sanford pulled out the Wal-Mart signs at his Cabinet meeting Wednesday, it prompted chuckles and groans around the room. Sanford looked at his chief of staff, Fred Carter, and then at the TV cameras in the room and noted, "Fred is horrified right now."

Holding up a big red "Rollback" sign with the trademark Wal-Mart smiley face, Sanford asked staffers what came to mind when they thought of Wal-Mart. Looking at another sign on the table, Department of Revenue Director Burnie Maybank said, "Low Prices Always?"

"No fair, that's cheating," Sanford said, glancing at the sign.

Jon Ozmint, the Corrections director, had the best line, however.

"My law firm represented Wal-Mart," Ozmint said, "so I think of slips and falls."

When Sanford explained the discount chain's corporate philosophy, which calls for executives traveling together to share a single hotel room, Carter again had a look of mock horror on his face.

"You're not going to make me share a room with Burnie, are you?" Carter asked. Seems Carter has had to share a room with Maybank before and still hasn't gotten over it.

And, score one more for Ozmint. Commerce Secretary Bob Faith told Ozmint that some businesses had expressed concern about the state's use of inmate labor on projects that private companies usually might do. Faith asked the Corrections director how he could smooth out any riff that causes.

"We can't compete with private businesses," Ozmint said with a shrug. "We have to stop and count our employees three times a day."

DUI BILL O-U-T?

-- Next week, the Senate may take up a bill to lower the state's DUI limit from 0.1 to .08 percent. On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, railed against the bill from the Senate floor. He said .08 gives officers no discretion and replaces the presumption of innocence with machines that often are wrong or inconclusive. He called it a "Big Brother" mandate out of Washington and said the state should go after repeat offenders and severely impaired drivers instead.

Several other senators have attacked the bill, saying it would be one more law enforced unevenly. "Where do you think they'll be setting up their roadblocks?" asked Sen. Kay Patterson, D-Columbia. "Outside the country clubs, or just the 'clubs?' "

That, McConnell said, is a good question. Even though the powerful president pro tem has said he will not try to kill the legislation, his statements Thursday seemed, to some people, to chip away at what was once considered a sure thing. Will that affect the outcome? Stay tuned.