Gov. Mark Sanford's number one priority for this legislative session--cutting the state's top income tax rate--is dead for the year. Supporters of the plan in the state Senate didn't have the votes to end a filibuster by opponents. With the legislative session ending Thursday and a stack of bills to work through, supporters gave up Tuesday.

"We got it to the one-yard line. We fought hard because we know it's something that's absolutely vital to helping small businesses expand and create jobs here in South Carolina," Gov. Sanford said.

"The bill overwhelmingly passed the House and was supported by a majority of senators," Gov. Sanford said. "Unfortunately, the archaic rules of the Senate basically allow for one senator to hold things up on any given bill and that's what happened."

The governor says he'll continue to push for an income tax cut, and hopes the Senate will change its rules, "so that the will of the majority of senators isn't held hostage in the future."

The governor's plan would have cut the state's top income tax rate of 7 percent to 4.75 percent over ten years. It would be cut only in years with at least 3 percent growth, to prevent cuts to any services.

But Clarendon County Democrat John Land, who led the filibuster to kill the bill, says the loss of revenue would hurt education and health care. "Everything bad about South Carolina will be locked in forever. Everything that's good about South Carolina will gradually go bad because we have set ourselves up to cap our growth."

The death of the income tax cut means that, with only two days left in the legislative session, only one item on the governor's agenda has passed. That's small business regulatory relief.

"It appears he does have a rift with the leadership of both the House and the Senate," Sen. Land says.

That rift was apparent last week, when the governor carried two live piglets to the lobby outside the House chamber to protest pork-barrel spending in the House budget.

The stunt didn't hurt his income tax cut plan. Senate Democrats were already blocking it. But the protest angered many lawmakers, and hurt an already fragile relationship.

"Sometimes his actions have appeared to be pitting himself against the legislature. That certainly doesn't create good feelings," says Sen. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn.

"It's not how Carroll Campbell, for instance, from the Upstate, would have handled it years ago. I think Carroll was a master at building relationships and passing significant items on his agenda," Sen. Thomas says. "This governor, Gov. Sanford, I just am very personally fond of him, but hasn't built that kind of rapport. It's been much more confrontational with the governor versus the legislature."

A spokesman for the governor says Sanford is still hoping more of his agenda items will pass in the final days of the legislature, including expanding charter schools and parts of his government restructuring plan.