COLUMBIA - Hot debate in the Senate on Tuesday showed there is no consensus on how or whether to adopt a swap of sales taxes for property taxes.

No action was taken, but in more than an hour of discussion, senators demonstrated the difficulty of developing a plan that satisfies most people and most senators.

"There are no real winners here, we really just have a tax shift," said Sen. Dick Elliott, D-North Myrtle Beach, who was worried about the effect of additional sales taxes on tourism and on the state's competitiveness in that industry.

The plan proposed by the Senate Finance Committee imposes an additional penny of sales tax and uses the money to increase the exemption for homes from school operating taxes, to exempt most car taxes for school operations and to fund a provision that no one must pay more than 5 percent of his or her income for property taxes.

The House sent over a plan with a 2-cent tax increase to pay for operating costs for school, city and county taxes for homeowners.

The House plan has more of a tax cut, said Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.

"For the first time, the House bill looks pretty good to me," McConnell said.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said Charleston County schools would lose $32 million under the House plan because of the distribution formula.

"The toughest issue is the distribution," said Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, who led the subcommittee that developed the Senate proposal.

That is why the Senate decided not to try to substitute sales tax for city and county taxes, he said.

Any time the state takes a locally imposed and locally collected tax and funnels it through Columbia for redistribution, there will be inequities, Hayes said.

The Senate bill aids fast-growing counties such as Horry, which is one of nine that would get a bit more money than they would under existing school-funding formulas, Hayes said.

Sen. Nikki Setzler, D-West Columbia, said the distribution is unfair and should be made more equitable.

Hayes said he agreed but that the subcommittee did the best it could.

The bill is designed to help the rich and penalize the poor, Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, said.

The Senate added car tax relief to help working people who do not own homes. Anderson said most people in that category will pay more for sales tax than they will see in car tax relief.

"This is Robin Hood in reverse," Anderson said.

Car tax relief isn't needed and all the money should go to property tax relief, said Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms. Campsen said he has constituents who are 80-year-old widows living in houses they have owned for 50 years and whose taxes exceed their income.

The income-based relief is the only thing good about the bill, Campsen said.

Elliott also complained that residents would be sending extra money to Washington because they could no longer deduct house taxes.

"There's no question that's a factor," said Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, a member of the subcommittee that drafted the plan.

"There is no perfect formula that fits 46 counties," Richardson said. "This was our best shot."

The Senate plan relieves 87 percent of residents of their school operating taxes, so it's a reasonable step, he said.

Debate is expected to continue today.