South Carolina -- faced with a mounting and unconstitutional budget deficit -- needs more from its leadership than partisan finger-pointing.

State leaders must accept the fact that both a former Democratic governor and the Republican-controlled legislature are responsible for the deficit. From there, they need to get an accurate accounting of exactly what the deficit is and wipe it off the books as soon as possible.

The state Budget and Control Board continued last week the pattern of delay and denial that has the state in this mess. Despite hearing the current budget will come up short by some $108 million in revenue, the five-member board tapped a reserve fund and advised state agencies to hold some money aside in hopes revenue will increase as the year goes on. That type of thinking was used all of last year, when there was a gubernatorial race taking place, and it resulted in deficit spending of $22 million in the fiscal year that ended in June. That is on top of a $155 million deficit from the previous year.

The state constitution prohibits budget deficits, but state leaders have barged right through that stop sign. Now they are parsing the legalities of who can order allocations needed to wipe out the deficit. The Budget and Control Board says it can't legally deal with budgets of past years. Some say the answer is a new state law that would put this task squarely in the lap of the legislature.

What good will that do if the legislature ignores existing rules? It raids trust funds, defying the explicit legal constraints on use of those funds. It raids the trusts with no plan -- some even say no intention -- to pay them back.

Election-year politics repeatedly is said to be the reason legislators and governors do not have the sense or courage to make realistic state budgets. They brag about not increasing taxes, never mentioning the deficit spending and raids on trust funds.

Kudos to new state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom for being forthright with the alarming deficit figures, but he was wrong to turn it into a political issue by blaming former Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat.

Gov. Mark Sanford, the Republican who unseated Hodges and railed against this financial gamesmanship throughout his campaign, has a realistic view of the problem. He insists that the money be paid back quickly because the problem will only get worse the longer it remains unresolved. The state's AAA credit rating is in jeopardy, and the growing debt from previous years only makes next year's budget writing harder. Sanford is right to wonder why anyone should trust the legislature to fix this problem next year, particularly since it will face a $350 million budget gap.

Leadership demands more than shuffling papers and shuffling blame. South Carolina must bite the bullet, pay off past deficits and refrain from overspending again in the current budget year.