Tax credits for private and public schools and a higher levy on cigarettes missed a key legislative deadline for passage Thursday.

But they are likely to be back, forcing House members at least to cast high-profile votes next week.

Proponents of the two controversial initiatives will troll for new life in the House next week by hooking them onto a massive “cleanup” tax bill that legislators in both chambers likely will pass.

Pages long, the tax bill is necessary, because it conforms language to similar uses elsewhere in the state code.

The opportunity it presents is important, because bills not passed by now typically face a tougher road to becoming law.

Thursday was the last legislative day before the May 1 crossover deadline. After that, a two-thirds majority vote is required in the other chamber for a measure to be taken up, a difficult hurdle.

The broad tax bill, likely to be taken up Wednesday, will clear the hurdle, so lawmakers with a range of tax-related measures are aiming to attach their plans. If successful, their amendments will gain entrance to the Senate like a Trojan horse.

“Hopefully, it will be as thoroughly debated as if it were a stand-alone bill,” said Rep. Tracy Edge, R-Horry, who is sponsoring the proposed amendment on tuition tax credits. “Even if we lose, it will be good to air it out.”

After dominating much of the legislative session last year, the tuition tax credit concept was shot down in the House as Gov. Mark Sanford’s “Put Parents in Charge” program.

Edge’s proposal, introduced in the House as a full bill earlier this year, failed to get out of a subcommittee last week. Dubbed the Educational Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit, it targets children in failing schools and children with special needs.

The proposal establishes a $1,000 tuition tax credit for students to attend an independent school or to move to another public school, even if it’s in a different school district, or to be home-schooled, all from kindergarten through grade 12.

Tax credits also would be available for physically and mentally handicapped students, based on a weighted formula involving per-pupil costs.

Edge said the total financial impact of the tax credits would be about $50 million. Others have set fiscal impact at up to $200 million.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said he agrees with the concept but has not studied its details yet.

Harrell said the traditional argument of public schools and public money versus whether it is fair to leave a poor child in a school that is failing is at issue.

“It’s a debate the General Assembly ought to have,” he said.

The cigarette tax, shot down in the Ways and Means Committee last week, is being proposed by Rep. Rex Rice, R-Pickens.

Rice’s amendment includes a 30 cents-per-pack tax, which increases a nickel in two years. Portions of the money would go to youth cessation and prevention programs and to healthy lifestyles promotion.

In all, at least seven amendments have been proposed to the wide-ranging tax “cleanup” bill, proposed by Rep. Herb Kirsh, D-York.

Harrell said he was unsure how the amendments might fare or what effect they might have in the Senate’s consideration of the necessary tax bill.

Rep. Skipper Perry, R-Aiken, said he plans to support the tax-credit bill, though he opposed “Put Parents in Charge” legislation last year. However, he said the bill comes through a convoluted path.

“The impact this is going to have, good or bad, it ought to be a clean bill, aired out on the floor of the South Carolina House of Representatives and the Senate,” Perry said. “Still, I’d rather be in the tent than outside complaining about it.”

Other lawmakers also will be looking for vehicles next week to attempt to get favored legislation back on track.