Many of you have told News Channel 7 that you’re sick and tired of paying property taxes, the taxes you pay on your home and car.

     Could this be the year that the South Carolina General Assembly makes changes?

     Perhaps no one wants those changes more than Barbara Reynolds of Duncan.

     In 1998, when Reynolds had a corporate job that kept her traveling frequently, she didn’t realize she’d forgotten to pay the property tax on her house until she tried to refinance her mortgage.

     Reynolds recalls, “They called me about -3- days later and said we can't refinance your house because you don't own your house anymore."

     Because she hadn’t paid an $800 tax bill, Reynolds’ home had been sold to a Florida real estate company.  "When I went to the courthouse, jumping up and down somewhat about this, they said well, it's gonna cost you $5,521 to get your property back,"  says Reynolds.  “I think you work really hard to accumulate items like that.  And it's not fair for your county or state government to come in once a year and say oh, we're going to penalize you for doing well."

     Reynolds favors dumping the property tax in favor of higher taxes on cigarettes and liquor, putting state lottery money toward property tax relief, and hiking the sales tax.  “If (the state) can come up with a way to figure out an amount we owe on our houses and on our cars and on our boats, they ought to be able to do this."

     Tax relief measures have been prefiled in the South Carolina General Assembly.  One measure calls for increasing the sales tax two cents on the dollar to reduce property taxes.  Another bill would let school districts implement a one-cent sales tax in lieu of hiking property taxes if approved by countywide referendum.  There’s also a proposal to exempt the elderly and disabled from paying higher property taxes if reassessment hikes the value of their home.

     “I just feel like there's got to be another way, a better way, a less painful way than have your property sold out from under you and have to buy your own property back,"  says Reynolds.

     Spartanburg Representative Lanny Littlejohn, a republican, believes chances are 50-50 that the sales tax will be increased this session to provide property tax relief.