Hilton Head Island Mayor Tom Peeples, in a letter sent to two state senators Thursday, derided the idea of property tax caps, chastised state officials for their handling of local issues and asked the state to raise the sales tax to pay for schools.

Peeples sent the seven-page letter to the two state senators enumerating the Town Council's concerns about any attempts to change the state's property tax system, with issues ranging from the need for better state education funding to better cooperation among elected officials.

"Each penny of the current state sales tax was imposed to fund education, but prior (l)egislatures have raided these funds," he wrote. "The additional sales tax needs to be put in a 'lock box' for public education."

He also said imposing property tax caps may have "unintended consequences," such as benefiting wealthy investors instead of long-term residents.

Peeples sent the letter to Sens. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, and Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, because he was unable to attend a public hearing Thursday in North Charleston. It reiterates some of the council's frequent criticism that state officials shrug off too much financial responsibility onto municipal governments.

The state legislators are holding a series of public meetings to hear from constituents about how to reform the property tax system in the state. Some residents have seen their bills skyrocket in recent years as property values shot up, particularly in the state's coastal areas. Ideas have ranged from imposing a cap on the amount of tax that can be collected to completely throwing out the last reassessment and starting over.

Bluffton Mayor Hank Johnston said Bluffton was preparing some comments to send to the officials holding the meetings. The comments will address three of the town's major concerns and suggestions: changing to a point-of-sale update to property tax values, adhering to inflationary increases on all property that doesn't change hands and encouraging the state to look at removing exemptions from the sales tax.

Removing exemptions -- which include newspapers, hearing aids and prescription medicine -- as well as a $300 cap on the sale of automobiles, would pump money into the system and make the state less reliant on property taxes, Johnston said.

"They need to look at those types of issues and figure out how much that would generate for schools ... and property tax relief," he said. "To eliminate the exemptions that exist in South Carolina law now would generate a huge amount of income for schools and roads."

County Council has several concerns and requests it has forwarded to state legislators, including a resolution asking for the ability for counties to reconsider doing reassessments more often than every five years and a request to explore point-of-sale evaluations, Chairman Weston Newton said.

One of the big requests involves doing away with the delay in getting new properties on the tax rolls. That delay in paying taxes can stretch as long as 23 months, Newton said. Getting rid of that delay would spread the burden for things like schools and emergency services more evenly.

"It's fair and equitable for everyone to pay for the public services that are required," he said. "Existing property owners are subsidizing the public services needed for that growth."

Peeples' letter implores state legislators to work with -- not against -- local officials to reform the system.

"You are hearing from certain constituents today," he wrote. "But who will you be hearing from if all you do is make piecemeal changes?"