Homeownership is called "the American Dream" because of people like Jimmy and Marilyn Bundrick. "It's a dream that I had when I was younger," Jimmy says, "to have a house one day, paid for."

But they're getting a rude awakening from that dream. "The way the taxes have been going the last several years, it'll never be paid for," he says of his home. "The taxes have gotten way out of hand."

Their home is large, well-furnished and sits on a golf course in Lexington. They also own other property, including a piece of land just outside of town, that they rent out. It's all thanks to Jimmy's business, Bundrick Kar Kare, which he's been running for 41 years now.

"I've worked hard for what I have, real hard," he says. "No one gave it to me. It wasn't left to me. And I would have loved to went and done a lot of things. But we wanted a home, so we strived to own a home. And now the taxes are eating us alive."

How bad is it? The property tax on their rental property has gone from about $3,200 to more than $12,000. Since he owns his own business, there was no retirement plan. That's what the rental property was supposed to be.

"If something is not done soon about the taxes, I'm not going to be able to retire, because the taxes are eating up all my retirement. I'm probably going to have to be like a lot of other people and sell the property in order to live," he says.

House members representing Lexington are trying to do something. They introduced a bill in the House Tuesday that would eliminate the local property taxes that go to pay for school operating expenses. To replace the money, their plan would raise the sales tax by two cents.

"The American Dream, for a lot of people, is currently being threatened," says Rep. Mac Toole, R-West Columbia.

Similar plans have been introduced before and haven't gotten far. That's because the state's poorest residents, who don't own property, would get no relief but would have to pay two cents more in sales tax on the necessities they buy.

Bundrick says, "People that don't own homes, if the taxes went down, the property tax, they could probably own a home." He says he's read about people who've gotten Habitat for Humanity homes for low-income families and they're now having trouble paying the property taxes.

But economists also say property taxes are a much more stable source of income for the state, since sales tax revenues fluctuate with the economy. They say other states that don't have property taxes or income taxes but rely on the sales tax have big problems when there are downturns in the economy.

Still, sponsors of the bill say they think they have a better chance of getting the legislation through this time, especially as more and more homeowners get reassessment notices with big property tax increases. Those angry homeowners will then put pressure on their lawmakers to do something.