Senate to try again today on tax relief

COLUMBIA -- The state Senate's plan to give final approval to its property tax relief plan unraveled Monday, leaving members one vote away from going back to the starting gate.

The first question senators will face when they re-convene at 10 a.m. today is whether to rescind the initial approval they gave to the bill last week. If that happens, senators will essentially then fight the same fights they've fought for the past month.

Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, said he doesn't believe it will come to that.

"I'm hopeful that as members think about it overnight and senators (who were out Monday) come back, there will be broad support for the Senate's position," Ritchie said.

That position, which Ritchie helped craft, would give voters in individual counties the option of increasing the local sales tax to eliminate school operating and other property taxes. The amount of the increase needed to completely wipe out those taxes varies by county.

The Senate proposal also raises the state sales tax by a half penny, to 5.5 cents on the dollar, to remove the county operating property taxes from all owner-occupied homes. Groceries and hotels would be excluded from the higher tax.

Sen. Glenn Reese, D-Boiling Springs, said that senators on his side of the aisle remained opposed.

"You might have a bunch of counties that adopt it and then you'll have those that don't," Reese said. "If we're going to do this it needs to be uniform rather than patchwork."

An amendment offered by Democratic Sens. Brad Hutto, Linda Short and Vince Sheheen added a new ingredient to the mix. Their provision strips taxing authority from school districts and requires the state to take over full funding of all public schools as of June 30, 2009 -- a proposal that would cost about $2.4 billion.

Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg, said if the amendment is allowed to stand, the results could be devastating for Spartanburg County schools.

Hawkins questioned why some of his fellow Republicans sided with Democrats in pushing the statewide funding system. He said he's hopeful that the measure will get a second look today.

"It would take funding away from our schools," Hawkins said. "We would essentially become a donor county."

Hawkins said some senators were still pushing for the plan passed by the House because anti-property tax groups didn't want to compromise. The House bill calls for a 2-cent increase in the state sales tax to eliminate 85 percent of the property taxes on owner-occupied homes.

Hawkins said that he would prefer the House plan as well, but that the local option proposal was the best hope of getting anything through the Senate.

President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said the Senate needs to finalize the deal today. The Senate is supposed to break for the week at the end of the day, but McConnell said senators could find themselves back in Columbia later this week if there's still work to be done.

McConnell said he was confident that those who wanted to scuttle the bill and start over would realize that they could lose any ground they had gained. He said he expects the bill to get third reading today.

If it doesn't, Ritchie said it could make for a long week.

"I think there will be a lot of guys going to the dry cleaner," Ritchie said.

Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.