AFTER MONTHS of work, the House's promising effort toward overhauling our clunky tax system, it seems, will end with a whimper.

Nothing is official yet. The ad hoc tax study committee appointed last year by House Speaker David Wilkins could still resume its work this spring. But its chairman, Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, favors a different route, and it's hard to imagine that the panel would press forward over his objections.

That means the only recommendation the panel will have made is to cap spending -- which has a great deal to do with the budgetary process, but absolutely nothing to do with the tax system. And Rep. Harrell's approach greatly delays the start of a public debate on reforming a tax code that is defined largely by its loopholes, has failed to adapt to a changing economy and has been altered so often that it no longer represents a coherent policy.

Still, it's hard to argue with Rep. Harrell's reasons for seeking a change of venue.

After spending the fall studying the state's tax system and hearing from various interests, the panel had just started debating changes when then-Gov. Jim Hodges started talking about calling a special legislative session to make emergency budget cuts.

That forced Rep. Harrell to change his plans for December. Instead of wrapping up work on the tax study panel, he had to start working on options to consider in the special session. Then it was time for the Ways and Means Committee to start writing next year's budget. While the study panel could get back to work after the House passes the budget next month, Rep. Harrell told me he prefers to hand the work off to a new tax study committee created last year and made up of representatives, senators and gubernatorial appointees.

"There's a little change in dynamic," Rep. Harrell said. "In the past I felt like one body simply had to pass it and put the onus on the other body to move from there. I don't feel that way any more because we've got a governor who is very much for it and wants to see it happen‘.‘.‘. and I believe the senators even want to see it happen, so I think you've got a dynamic where you'll have all three entities wanting to work together on the tax code."

Indeed, Rep. Harrell's co-chairman of the joint committee, Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, actually has a demonstrated commitment to tax overhaul. In 1994, he and then-Rep. Billy Boan chaired a tax study committee that proposed an overhaul of state and local taxes.

Unfortunately, both Rep. Boan and Sen. Leatherman were Democrats at the time (both later became Republicans), and 1994 was the year of the Republicans. The GOP took over the House and David Beasley won the governor's race on promises to wipe out homeowner property taxes. That pledge set the Legislature on fire and consumed the political will for any other significant changes for years to come.

Finally, though, talk of real tax reform -- as opposed to simply tax cuts, which supporters like to refer to as reform -- is cool again. And Sen. Leatherman sees it as essential to our state's future.

And yet‘.‘.‘.‘. The imminent demise of the nimbler ad hoc committee is still disappointing.

Rep. Jim Merrill, one of two young legislators whose determination to tackle the tax code was instrumental in the creation of the House panel, said Rep. Harrell's thinking made sense. But he felt like the House panel had just gotten a good enough understanding of the tax system that it could start putting together a proposal.

"I've been very excited that we had people from both parties and some newer minds looking at stuff," he said. "I really do commend the speaker for putting folks like (freshmen) Kenny Bingham and Vincent Sheheen on a committee, where it would be very easy to go back to the tried and true. That's going to be lacking on the joint committee, I would assume."

Rep. Merrill's co-reformer, Rep. Sheheen, says the panel could have wrapped up its work in a couple of more meetings. And he worries that the joint committee won't feel the same urgency the House panel did. "Unless there is a compressed time schedule, we tend not to get anything done, and we had that on our committee, which I think was very helpful because we were getting a great deal done," he said.

It's a reasonable fear. Sen. Leatherman doesn't expect the joint committee to make any recommendations before next year.

That's later than a lot of us would like. There is good reason to believe that the financial crisis into which the state has been sinking has created the greatest incentive we'll have for tax reform for some time.

But Rep. Harrell thinks it could actually improve the chances for reform if the Legislature can get through the crisis before plunging into such a massive undertaking. "For the next three or four years, we're going to be like adults who grew up in the Depression," he said. "This memory is going to be lasting. And it's easier to change the tax code if you don't have that pressure on the money."

I hope he's right. We can't afford to wait through another decade before we make repairs.