Months of state Senate debate over a stronger seat-belt law have all but killed the chances that several bills — including an income tax cut and property tax relief — will become law this year, lawmakers said Tuesday.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, has led a group of senators filibustering the seat-belt proposal for about two months, creating a backlog of legislation waiting for debate.

McConnell on Tuesday blamed his opponents — the majority of senators supporting the strong seat-belt law — for forcing the filibuster and preventing the Senate from finishing much work on legislation before the session ends June 3.

“What you’re watching is major pieces of legislation starting to die — tort reform, the governor’s tax plan ... all of it,” McConnell said.

The Senate’s schedule is packed this week as lawmakers try to get to unfinished business before they begin to deliberate the proposed $5.3 billion state budget next week.

But as the seat-belt debate dragged on, committee meetings were postponed and then canceled — resulting in delays McConnell says likely could doom much legislation.

Among the bills scheduled for committee debate Tuesday was Gov. Mark Sanford’s proposed income tax cut, which would reduce the income tax to 4.75 percent from 7 percent over 10 years.

Senators also had hoped to consider a bill to limit property values from increasing more than 15 percent after a revaluation.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said the Finance Committee he chairs will not meet again until after the Senate finishes the budget. That could be in two weeks or more, leaving no more than three weeks for the full Senate to decide any bills passed out of committee.

Efforts by those trying to force a vote on the seat-belt law “have really slowed down those pieces of legislation,” Leatherman said.

Leatherman said he had been prepared to vote for Sanford’s income tax proposal, and he thought the plan had the votes to pass out of committee.

Sanford is in danger of ending his second year in office having accomplished little. Among a half-dozen bills he backed this year, the income tax proposal was his best shot at getting a major initiative passed.

The House is expected to vote on several of his other proposals this week, but McConnell doubts there is enough time to get to them in the Senate this year.

Sanford might have contributed Tuesday to the delay on his tax bill. Several senators trying to end the seat-belt debate recalled having heard Sanford say on a radio program he would veto the seat-belt bill if it got to his desk.

Those senators said they could quit debating if the bill was dead anyway.

But Sanford would not clarify his position for senators Tuesday. Spokesman Will Folks said the governor “wanted to let the deliberative process work.”

He said Sanford has not given up on the tax bill.

“If there’s anything we’ve learned in this process, it’s to expect the unexpected — particularly when it comes to the Senate,” Folks said. “Nothing is dead until they put a spike in it, and nothing is alive until it makes it out of that chamber.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com