Property owners whose land winds up on the county auction block because of delinquent taxes may get some relief from a bill being considered by the South Carolina General Assembly this year.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, on May 29, makes sure county officials only auction off enough land to satisfy the taxes owed, instead of an entire property.

The bill passed the Senate on Jan. 13 and is now up for consideration in the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives.

Property owners have a full year to pay off delinquent property taxes before tax sales become final, but Pinckney said his bill will make sure people's land isn't being sold off for "nowhere close to the land's worth."

In Jasper County, Pinckney said, 55 acres were sold at the county's 2003 tax sale for only a few thousand dollars.

"What has happened is akin to someone getting a capital murder sentence for shoplifting," he said.

The bill actually is a throwback to the way courts interpreted the law before a controversial 1999 S.C. Supreme Court ruling, said Danielle Metoyer, an attorney with the Appleseed Foundation in Columbia.

In that case, Daniel Folk argued that Charleston County has the right and the responsibility to determine whether each part of the tax sale property is divisible and how much land must be sold to satisfy the taxes owed on the property. But the Supreme Court ruled the property owner must ask county officials to determine the way the land should be divided before the sale.

Metoyer said Pinckney's bill is needed because most property owners with property tax problems don't know they have the right to ask the county to only auction off part of their land at a tax sale.

Beaufort County Deputy Treasurer Hershel Evans said no one ever has requested their land be subdivided to pay off the taxes.

Beaufort County has more than 555 cases of landowners who are delinquent in paying 2003 property taxes, Evans said. If those tax bills aren't paid in full, the properties will be auctioned at the county tax sale in the fall.

State Rep. Thayer Rivers, D-Ridgeland, said he plans to push the bill in the House because there's too much ambiguity over how the law is interpreted.

Rivers and Pinckney have worked closely over the last few years with Lowcountry lawyers and land preservation organizations to help rural landowners retain their property.

"They don't make land anymore," Rivers said. "We want to help people preserve it the best they can."