COLUMBIA -- The state would take over the full cost of public schools in three years under yet another property tax relief plan passed Monday by a divided state Senate.

Passage of the plan offered a surprise victory for proponents of school funding equity but left some senators wondering if the body was prepared to embrace any bill.

"I didn't expect this today," said Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens, who spoke against the plan. "I'm not prepared to go through three more weeks of this."

The Senate is scheduled to take up today a motion to reconsider last week's vote, a move that would erase what the Senate has passed in three weeks of debate in an effort to allow more amendments to be heard, including yet another version of a school equity plan.

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Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell warned afterward that if the Senate votes to undo its work, it also will erase Monday's school funding plan with no guarantee senators will replace it with another. With only a few weeks until the end of the session, he said the body has to decide what it wants.

"Tomorrow, we need to decisively act," he said.

Monday had been the day senators were scheduled to take a final vote on the plan they passed last week. That proposal, which still remains, would remove county operating taxes from most homes statewide in exchange for an increase in the sales tax of one-half cent per dollar.

The plan also would allow voters in each county to decide if they want more tax relief in return for an increase in the sales tax.

It would require separate legislation, to be taken up today, to amend the state's Constitution. That requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate's 46 members, which is uncertain given the repeated divided votes on the issue.

The House-passed version of property tax relief would remove most homeowner's taxes in exchange for an increase in the sales tax of two cents. The plan also eliminates the sales tax on groceries.

House leaders indicated last week that their membership likely would be unsatisfied with what the Senate was doing.

With some senators away Monday, backers of a plan to address school funding equity seized the opportunity and submitted an amendment to remove all school operating taxes by June 30, 2009.

The plan carried on a voice vote, despite criticism from several senators, including Martin, who labeled it the "death-star" amendment because of what he said is its potential to wreck property tax relief.

He predicted the plan would hurt the state's credit rating, cause less local involvement and less local support of education.

"It's bad public policy," he told his colleagues.

The plan doesn't say how the state would replace taxes that it forbids school districts from collecting in three years. Arguments over how to replace that money and send it back to the school districts have prevented any other school equity plan from passing in the property tax debate.

While some senators said the plan would require a huge tax increase of some kind, Sen. Larry Grooms, a Berkeley County Republican and school funding equity proponent, said he saw it as a "$2.4 billion tax decrease."

"The question is, are we local option senators or state senators?" he asked.

Some senators said afterward that they saw Monday's actions as part of a plan to kill property tax relief for this year. Others weren't so discouraged.

McConnell said he thinks the school funding plan would help the Senate in its negotiations with the House.

Sen. Jim Ritchie, a Spartanburg Republican, said he thinks once senators consider what is at stake, they will form a consensus today and give final approval to the legislation.

"This is a very important policy decision for the long-term health of the state's economy," he said. "I'm convinced you'll see a broad vote of the Senate's plan."