HARRISBURG -- State House members last night debated a radical change in the way public schools are funded in Pennsylvania -- completely eliminating the $10 billion raised annually in school property taxes and replacing that, over four years, with a higher personal income tax rate and sales taxes on many professional services that aren't now taxed.

Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks, was trying to amend House Bill 1600, a proposal by Rep. David Levdansky, D-Forward, that would make more modest reductions of several hundred dollars a year in school taxes for residential homeowners.

Mr. Rohrer contended that the Levdansky bill didn't go nearly far enough to help overburdened homeowners. Mr. Rohrer called for a complete elimination of property taxes paid by homeowners and commercial interests.

Mr. Rohrer said he would raise $3.2 billion in new revenue by increasing the personal income tax rate to 3.92 percent, up from the current 3.07 percent. Mr. Levdansky is also seeking to increase the income tax, but only to 3.29 percent. He also wants to increase the sales tax by 0.5 percent.

Mr. Rohrer proposed a much more dramatic change in the sales tax. He would keep the rate at 6 percent, and maintain current exceptions for food, clothing, doctor and hospitals visits and prescription drugs.

But he vowed to raise between $6 billion and $7 billion in additional sales tax revenue by applying the 6 percent sales tax to many services it doesn't apply to now. Such services to be taxed would include those provided by lawyers, accountants, engineers, computer technicians, data processors, architects, tax preparers, "day care" services for young children or senior citizens, financial institution services, Bibles and religious articles, newspapers, caskets and non-prescription drugs.

"If Joe Lunchbucket needs an attorney to do a will or an accountant to prepare his taxes, he's going to have to pay sales tax on those services. He'd even have to pay the tax on ATM services if he withdraws money from his bank," said Mr. Levdansky, who opposed the Rohrer bill.

Mr. Rohrer said the property-tax issue "is one of the most important and complex issues we have debated. School property tax burdens are onerous and have been increasing on all citizens of this state. Partial fixes and Band-aids aren't enough. Some people are losing their homes because of high property taxes."

The House adjourned late last night and will resume debate in the morning. Any vote taken on the Rohrer proposal would be preliminary action. Even if the House approved it, the bill would still need final approval in a second vote taken at least 24 hours later.

If the House gives final approval, the bill would have to go to the Senate, where the odds of making such a dramatic change to public school funding are unknown.

And if the Senate did approve, it seems unlikely that Gov. Ed Rendell would sign the bill. He said as recently as last week that he'd like to reduce property taxes but still thinks that element "should be part of the mix" for paying for public education.

Mr. Rendell is counting on slots casinos to help lower property taxes. With six casinos now open in Pennsylvania, and another one to open in February, there's already $576 million available to lower property taxes in July. The slots revenue will surpass $1 billion in two years, Mr. Rendell said.

He and Mr. Levdansky are counting on slots revenue to reduce property taxes by several hundred dollars a year. Mr. Levdansky said that increasing the personal income tax to 3.29 percent and the sales tax to 6.5 percent statewide would produce reductions of about $1,000 a year for many homeowners. His bill also still needs to be voted on by the House.