In 2006, following a 30-year trend among the US states to remove the property tax from the revenue for public schools, the South Carolina General Assembly enacted Act 388 which replaced the property tax with a one-cent sales tax. The law decreased the budget capacity of school districts thus impacting educational equity and adequacy. This paper describes key policy makers' and stakeholders' interpretations of the pressure for property tax relief and highlight the importance of policy coherence in education finance, taxation, and accountability.