TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida voters will have a chance in November to approve an across-the-board property tax cut averaging 25 percent, which would dwarf two other tax relief measures enacted over the past year.

The Legislature would be required to replace an estimated $8 billion in annual revenue losses through several options including a 1 percentage point increase in the present 6 percent statewide sales tax.

The measure approved Monday by the state's tax commission would abolish the portion of property taxes the Legislature requires local school districts to levy in order to qualify for state aid. Other school taxes, which represent a much smaller part of overall tax bills, would be unaffected.

Another provision would give businesses, second homes and other properties that do not qualify for a homestead exemption -- available only for primary homes -- would get a 5 percent cap on annual assessment increases. Homesteads now have a 3 percent cap and the other properties received a 10 percent limit as part of Amendment 1, a tax relief proposal voters approved Jan. 29.

The new proposal was approved by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which meets every 20 years, and sponsored by Commissioner John McKay, a former Florida Senate president.

It is similar in concept to a tax swap that House Speaker Marco Rubio was unable to get through the Legislature last year. Rubio, R-West Miami, was on hand to urge that commissioners adopt McKay's proposal.

"If you are waiting for the Florida Legislature to cut taxes, it's not going to happen," Rubio said. "You're our last hope."

The Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida and other business groups opposed the proposal because of the sales tax increase and potential it would force the Legislature to tax services, which are now excluded from sales tax.

The pennny-per-dollar sales tax increase is expected to bring in from $3.3 billion to $3.9 billion a year. That's more than $4 billion short of the replacement goal. Other options include cutting state spending and revenues resulting from economic growth the sponsors predict the property tax cut will generate.

The commission voted 21-4 for the proposal. A minimum of 17 votes is required to get on the ballot. The commission's drafting committee now will put it into a ballot format before returning to the full panel for a final vote.

Tax increases require 67 percent approval at the ballot box, but McKay said his proposal would need only the standard 60 percent. That's because the sales tax increase is optional, not required, he said.

Commissioner Patricia Levesque, executive director of two education foundations created by former Gov. Jeb Bush, withdrew a nearly identical proposal she sponsored. Commissioner Carlos Lacasa, a former state representative from Miami, asked the commission to postpone action on a competing plan.

Lacasa's measure features a 25 percent "super exemption" for all residential properties, including second homes and rentals. He said he wanted time to see if it could be made compatible with McKay's proposal, which he voted for.

The Legislature last year ordered local governments to roll back property taxes, but many avoided severe cuts by taking advantage of a provision that let them override the requirement through votes of more than a simple majority. Others passed new fees to make up at least some of the lost property taxes.

Amendment 1, meanwhile, is expected to save primary homeowners about $240 a year by doubling their $25,000 homestead exemption but only for non-school taxes on houses valued at more than $50,000.

Other provisions will give homesteaders "portability" by letting them take Save Our Homes benefits when they move, provide a business tax break on equipment and other personal property and add the 10 percent non-homestead assessment cap.

Together those measures are expected to cut property taxes by about $24 billion over five years -- about half as much as the commission's proposal.

They did little, though, to address inequities caused largely by Save Our Homes, which voters approved in 1992. It shifted tax burden from homesteads to other types of property and new home buyers.

The commission's amendment addresses the fairness issue by providing tax relief to all properties while lowering the assessment cap for non-homestead properties.

Revenue replacement options in the commission's amendment include repealing certain exemptions ranging from stadium skyboxes to bottled water, but it prohibits consideration of those for necessities of life such as food, medicine and residential rents, as well as charitable and religious purposes.

The listed options do not include services such as accounting and legal work that now are excluded, but the measure does not prohibit lawmakers from that alternative.

Commissioner Randy Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Retail Association, voted against the amendment after arguing it would force the Legislature to pass a service tax because that would be the only way to make up the lost school revenue.

The other no votes were cast by Barney Barnett, vice president of Publix Super Markets Inc. in Lakeland; R. Mark Bostick, president of Comcar Industries in Winter Haven, and Greg Turbeville, a Tallahasssee consultant and former Bush policy director.