A South Carolina Senate Finance subcommittee did well in rejecting the South Carolina House plan to eliminate residential property taxes and make up the lost revenue with a 2 percent sales tax increase. The senators recognized that the House plan would cripple local governments and transfer too much of the tax burden to businesses and low-income South Carolinians, while weakening the South Carolina tourism economy.

Instead, Finance subcommittee members began work on a plan that would remove only school taxes from residential property tax bills. Their concept: The state should finance South Carolina schools while homeowners continue financing counties and cities via the mill levy.

This idea is better than the House plan, but still dangerous. In most South Carolina counties, the school property tax makes up almost two-thirds of typical tax bill, with cities, counties and other local governments claiming the rest. That's a lot of financial responsibility for the state to assume. ...

The ray of hope in all this: South Carolina senators unlike House members, don't face the voters this year. They don't have to worry about looking good on this issue, but can and should worry about doing good. Their best course is to develop less costly legislation to relieve the homeowners hit hardest by last year's tax revaluations - the only tax relief South Carolina really needs.

The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News