HELENA - It took three separate votes Monday after some marathon debates and a voter tally board left open extra long for one lawmaker to switch his vote for the House to finally pass what may be the lone surviving major revenue bill by a 51-49 margin.

Senate Bill 407 was brought back to the House for debate Monday after being rejected 51-49 on Friday. On Monday, it failed 54-46 and 50-50 before winning narrow approval, with just 10 days left in the Legislature.

The bill that no one much seems to like now faces a final House vote today before returning to the Senate. Its outcome on the final House vote is by no means certain.

''Obviously, it continues to hang by a tenuous thread,'' House Speaker Doug Mood, R-Seeley Lake, said afterward.

The passage of the bill took many twists and turns during the day, with Republicans holding three caucus or strategy sessions as GOP leaders pleaded with the rank-and-file for support because they were getting few votes from Democrats.

''We need to have some sort of chip in this bargaining thing we have here,'' House Majority Leader Roy Brown, R-Billings, told Republicans. ''If we don't have it, we're going to get screwed on House Bill 2. It's as simple as that.''

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders accused the Republican majority of breaking legislative rules when they kept bringing SB407 back for debate after it was defeated on the floor. The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee backed the Republican leaders.

''That's mischief of the highest order that I hope we never see again,'' said House Minority Leader Dave Wanzenried, D-Missoula.

In its present form, SB407, sponsored by Sen. Bob DePratu, R-Whitefish, raises a net $68.4 million over the next two-plus years to help balance the state budget after paying for some income-tax cuts in fiscal 2005.

It boosts the current 4 percent tax on hotel and motel rooms to 7 percent, imposes a new 4 percent tax on rental cars, hikes the state tax on cigarettes from 18 cents a pack to 70 cents and doubles the tax on all other tobacco products. About $15.7 million of the money would be used to pay for a 7 percent reduction in state income taxes, averaging $105 per household, in fiscal 2005 and a 1 percent capital gains credit.

Its passage was in doubt right up until the end. The presiding officer, Rep. Cindy Younkin, R-Bozeman, is able to see the running vote tally at the speaker's podium before the final count shows up on the voter tally scoreboards viewed by lawmakers. She had told Republicans in caucus earlier if the vote were tied 50-50, she wouldn't immediately close the tally to give someone a chance to switch votes.

The vote was taken, and Younkin declined to close the board for what seemed like minutes but was really only a matter of seconds. At one point, she implored, ''We need one vote.'' At that point, Rep. John Sinrud, R-Bozeman, switched his vote from no to yes, and SB407 finally passed.

Asked why he switched, Sinrud told reporters afterward he didn't really like the bill, but added: ''I don't want to see it go down right now.''

''By voting yes, you don't have to listen to it five more times till 3 in morning,'' said Sinrud, who added that he was returning home Monday night to talk to his constituents.

A number of amendments came before the House but failed. Among them were: one by Rep. Tom Facey, D-Missoula, to strip the income and capital gains cuts from the bill and raise $85 million over two years; one by Rep. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, to impose a gross receipts tax on ''big box'' stores, such as Wal-Mart, to raise an additional $66 million over two years; and one by Rep. Jim Shockley, R-Victor, to delete everything in the bill except the cigarette tax hike, raising about $60 million over the next two years.

Republicans defended the bill as critical to raise more money to balance the state budget, add money for human services and education and implementing much-needed income and capital gains tax cuts.

''While the bill may not be pretty and there may be provisions in here that I do not like, I think this is the vehicle,'' said Rep. Ron Devlin, R-Terry, the House sponsor.

Democrats contended the revenue was not sufficient and condemned the proposed tax breaks as special treatment for the wealthiest Montanans. They pointed to state Revenue Department figures showing middle-and lower-income Montanans getting little relief.

''The hard-working Montana middles class is going to come away here with chump change,'' said Rep. Kim Gillan, D-Billings.

Rep. Scott Mendenhall, R-Whitehall, said when income taxes are cut, the people paying the taxes get the proportionate cut, but that low-income Montanans would get the highest percentage cuts.

''OK folks, you're going to be getting a few dollars, but Ted Turner, if he pays Montana income taxes, would get $10,000,'' said Rep. Tim Dowell, R-Kalispell.