The South Carolina House Ways and Means Committee soon should take up a Senate-passed bill that could preserve the land and home of a poor or unsuspecting owner.

The recently passed bill introduced last year by Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, requires county officials to divide where feasible property being auctioned at delinquent tax sales to satisfy tax liens. Property owners have a full year to pay off delinquent property taxes before tax sales become final, but Pinckney said his bill ensures land isn't sold for a pittance. The senator was angered last year when 55 acres in Jasper County was sold for only a few thousand dollars, when only a portion of the land could have been sold to satisfy the bill.

Some people in the community may say that a homeowner who can't afford to pay property taxes should simply sell and reap the benefits of increased value. That would ignore the point that some property may have been in a family for generations but may be tied up in heirs property. Others may be on fixed incomes but live in a neighborhood or community where property values have soared over the years.

Pinckney's bill and its subsequent support in the House by Rep. Thayer Rivers, D-Ridgeland, is a result of a S.C. Supreme Court ruling in 2001 that states a county treasurer no longer can subdivide land into parcels, selling only enough property to satisfy a delinquent tax bill. For years, Beaufort County Treasurer Joy Logan subdivided parcels at the annual delinquent tax sale and then sold only enough land to pay the outstanding debt. Rivers said in 2002 that Logan's action was forward-thinking, but the court ruling halted her pioneering decision. However, people can still request that the treasurer subdivide the land before it's sold.

The court ruling may have been good for people who want to speculate on land buying, but it wasn't good for property owners, especially property owners who may not be savvy enough to subdivide and sell only enough to satisfy the tax bill.

Consequently, Pinckney and Rivers want to put Beaufort and Jasper counties back atop the leadership pack when it comes to residents retaining ownership of property.

Last year Rivers assembled a bipartisan, multi-jurisdictional task force to examine delinquent tax sales. But delinquent tax sales is just a minor part of the major thrust to solve in this generation the problems of clear title to heirs property, which has been a major part of the land that goes up for auction on the courthouse steps.

People who deal with heirs property know that it may take a modern-day King Solomon to resolve problems. In the meantime, the Senate-passed bill that now goes to the House offers some relief.

In 2002, Rivers contended that the Beaufort County treasurer was sold out by fellow tax collectors who didn't want to do their job. It's immensely more difficult to subdivide the land. Others want to take the easy way out, which isn't always beneficial to hard-working people, who for whatever reason have come face to face with the tax collector.

This fall more than 550 parcels of land will be up for auction unless landowners satisfy their delinquent 2003 property taxes. Some of that land could be saved in House concurs with the Senate.