COLUMBIA - College spending would be cut by about $10 million and state agencies would lose more than $61 million under final approval given Thursday by House budget writers to a spending plan for the next fiscal year.

Their proposed $7 billion budget is balanced mostly because it taps reserve, trust and surplus cash that agencies have been able to set aside over the past couple of years. The spending plan is to head to the House floor in two weeks.

Some of the cuts may reach pocketbooks, particularly those of parents and students paying tuition. The last round of state budget cuts beginning in 2000 led to sharp tuition increases.

Gov. Mark Sanford had called for deeper budget cuts out of worry that the economy is slowing. He wanted lawmakers to cut spending by $326 million, or 4.6 percent, compared with the current budget.

Sanford on Thursday had some praise for the House's budget, noting that the lawmakers went along with reductions in travel spending he's sought for years. He also lauded plans to fully fund the annual increase in per-student spending in public schools, eliminating a shortfall in the state's tuition prepayment program and putting more money into the state's economic development efforts.

(Associated Press)