The property tax relief plan that finally got key Senate approval late Thursday night isn't the kind of statewide solution to education funding that senators such as Berkeley's Larry Grooms or Charleston's Chip Campsen had hoped for. But vote after vote in the Senate showed that wasn't in the cards. The winning combination that finally ruled the day is the local option sales tax Sen. Campsen has had in his back pocket along with a new statewide sales tax twist that would provide homeowners relief on their county tax bills. One of the plan's greatest merits is that it is the least complicated to date. It also has the potential of providing substantial relief where the need is the greatest.

The local option sales tax portion of the package is simple enough. County officials or voters ? by petition ? would have the ability to put a local sales tax on the ballot. That tax would substitute for some portion of the property tax. There would be no limits on which group of property owners could get relief or the size of the proposed new sales tax. Obviously the ballot question would have to be geared to what proponents think the voters would buy. Sen. Campsen says that in Charleston, for example, less than a penny increase would eliminate all school property taxes on single-family dwellings. However, those counties that don't have an escalating property value problem wouldn't be likely to put a local sales tax question on their ballot.

But all owners of single-family residences would get relief from the second part of the package, a half-cent, statewide sales tax increase that would raise an estimated $380 million and be used to reduce the size of a homeowner's county government tax bill. The measure is patterned on the existing exemption on school taxes that the state already gives homesteads. The first $90,000 of appraised value now is exempted from school taxes at a cost of some $400 million annually to the state.

Sen. Campsen notes that in some of the smaller counties, few residences are valued at more than $90,000, which means those homeowners already pay virtually no school tax. That's why the new half-cent tax would provide relief on the county tax bills, which the senator notes compromises about 27 percent of the total. The plan calls for exempting the first $331,000 of the appraised value of the property from the county government tax levy. A homestead valued at that amount or less would be relieved of all the county tax bill.

In fact, Sen. Campsen notes that under the plan, for less than a 1.5 cent sales tax increase, Charleston owners of single-family dwellings valued at $331,000 or less would pay neither school nor county government property taxes.

At the moment, one of the unresolved hurdles is whether the local option sales tax portion of the plan would have to be approved in the form of a constitutional amendment. Sen. Campsen says there are good arguments on both sides and the matter should be resolved by Monday when the Senate returns. If a constitutional amendment is required, at issue is whether proponents can get the necessary two-thirds vote.

If that happens, the Senate and House, through a conference committee, must come to terms on notably different plans. The House has approved a two-cent statewide sales tax increase aimed at eliminating all property taxes on single-family homeowners. There's a basic problem with that proposal. That body has yet to come up with a formula for sending that money back to the local governments. Neither do we believe such an agreement is feasible in the time remaining before adjournment. The big plus of the Senate half-cent sales tax plan is that it is based on a homestead exemption and doesn't require a rebate formula. Neither is this property relief plan dependent on such revolutionary changes as scuttling fair market value as the basis for assessing real property for tax purposes. That's an idea the Legislature should permanently shelve.

The Senate plan is still being worked on and there may well be some hidden pitfalls. At first blush, however, it appears to accomplish the property tax relief goal without any glaring unintended consequences.