COLUMBIA, S.C. - Plans to raise the state's fuel tax by 7 cents ran out of gas in the South Carolina Senate on Thursday.

"I told you it was dead on arrival," Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, said.

The legislation started in the House as a plan to redirect cash collected from a variety of fees to overdue highway maintenance, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, added an amendment that would increase the fuel tax. The move would have generated $197 million yearly for maintenance.

Senators killed the amendment Thursday.

Leatherman said the state must address maintenance shortcomings that have turned the state's road system into one of the nation's deadliest. The state hasn't put money into road maintenance projects for years because it has lacked cash. What money it has had is earmarked for building projects that win federal matching funds, Leatherman said.

The proposal would have raised the state tax on a gallon of gas two cents by Dec. 1, 2006, or sooner if average gas prices drop below $2 a gallon. Then drivers would pay a penny a gallon more for each of the next five years, ultimately adding seven cents to the current 16.8 cents a gallon.