COLUMBIA ? The state Senate's approval of a property tax relief package Tuesday led Republican leader Harvey Peeler to one conclusion: "A miracle can happen."

It sure seemed that way after senators emerged from a closed-door meeting with a pared-down local option plan that garnered enough votes to end a month-long stalemate.

Under the legislation, voters would decide in a November constitutional referendum whether to grant individual counties the ability to reduce property taxes by increasing the local sales tax.

Local governments could raise the sales tax as much as needed to remove school and county operating taxes from all classes of property, not just owner-occupied homes.

The amount of the tax-swap would be in the hands of local governments, but senators cautioned that a complete elimination of property taxes is unlikely because it would prove costly.

"It's not what everybody wants and it's not as far as some people want to go," said Senate leader Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston. "But it empowers voters at the polls."

The new plan effectively scraps a measure to increase the state sales tax a half-cent and make the state take over of education funding, which senators had adopted.

It also diverges widely from what the House approved earlier this session.

That plan would eliminate the bulk of home taxes by increasing the statewide sales tax by 2 cents to 7 cents.

The differences will force the House and Senate into a conference committee, where three members of each chamber will attempt to hammer out a compromise.

"It will be the mother of all conference committees," said Peeler, R-Gaffney.

Three senators voted against the tax package, including Lowcountry Sens. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau and Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland.

Grooms, along with a number of taxpayer advocacy groups, said the compromise was nothing more than "a political scapegoat that allows members of the Senate to say they didn't kill property tax relief."

"In passing a plan that doesn't benefit homeowners, we've really done nothing here," said Grooms, who fought ardently for a more comprehensive plan. "The two versions are so vastly different that I don't see a conference report coming out."

Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, said he wasn't happy with the plan, but voted in favor anyway.

"It's all you can get out of this body," he said of the divided Senate. "It's a political reality that you can't get votes for more broad tax relief."

Reach John Frank at (803) 799-9051 or jbfrank@postandcourier.com.