COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Senate planned to work through the night Thursday to wrap up work on a $5.3 billion state budget that had grown out of balance by about $21 million.

A $15 million chunk of that came early Thursday evening when plans to spend money from selling excess state property were tossed by a procedural ruling.

That "puts us another $15 million out of balance," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said.

On Wednesday, senators killed a deal to take more low-level nuclear waste at a Barnwell facility that would pay the state $6 million. Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, argued that South Carolina should avoid taking in more waste and becoming the nation's nuclear dumping ground.

Both moves made what promised to be a long night even longer, with 62 remaining budget amendments likely to spark lengthy debate.

"We won't be adjourned before Friends - the last episode of Friends?" Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, said. "We're going to miss that? I think it's the last time we're going to be friends."

And it had signs of getting worse as Senate Democrats and some Republicans led a charge to force spending any extra money generated by higher-than-expected state tax collections this year on what's called an unconstitutional deficit.

"I feel like we need to deal with it," Sen. Vince Sheheen, D-Camden, said. While that might mean program cuts or tax increases, "I think we've got a constitutional obligation to deal with it," Sheheen said. "I think it's worth doing and I think it's worth doing now."

It was the third day of budget debate, and lawmakers continued to propose amendments requesting even more money for agencies and projects.

Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, proposed an amendment to restore $1.5 million cut from the state Commerce Department's budget. Additional cuts would mean more layoffs and a reduction in marketing, he said.

"We need to make a commitment to continue to look for good economic development," Ryberg said. "To do that, we need a viable Commerce Department."

Other senators said it would not be fair to slash other agencies to give Commerce more money.

"We want to give every agency more money, but I don't know how we do it," said Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater.

The amendment was withdrawn.

Another proposed amendment, which didn't pass but could come up again later, would use anticipated extra lottery revenues toward libraries across the state.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, asked senators to hold off on proposals for special projects until the budget was brought back into balance.

Senators also reversed some of their decisions from Wednesday.

For instance, a 25-12 vote approved a referendum that would let voters tell the General Assembly whether they'd prefer to pay higher sales taxes in exchange for lower property taxes.

"This is an issue that's worthy of a hearing," Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, said.

And some senators were pushing a proposal that would undo Wednesday's action deleting the Barnwell money.