COLUMBIA, S.C. - Some school leaders are pushing a plan that would raise the state's sales tax by two cents on the dollar and lower property taxes.

Legislators proposed a similar plan earlier this year, but the measure didn't make it through committee hearings before the General Assembly went home in June.

For instance, House Minority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Columbia, and Rep. Vince Sheheen, D-Camden, introduced a bill in June that would eliminate the school portion of property taxes in exchange for raising the current nickle-on-the-dollar sales tax by two cents. In the Senate, several attempts to raise the sales tax in exchange for lower property taxes failed during budget debates.

"I thank those gentlemen for putting forth a dramatic proposal," Bob Davis, chief financial officer for Richland 2 schools, said of the Quinn-Sheheen plan.

Davis and nine colleagues, all acting independently of their employers, went public this week with their proposal. "We felt it was a good time for us to share our thoughts on what's being proposed," Davis said.

Along with the sales tax increase, they want to eliminate sales tax exemptions on several items and services, including newspapers, newsprint, broadcasting equipment, residential electricity bills, lottery tickets, bulk mail and long-distance phone calls. The plan generates up to $1.5 billion, they say.

Along schools improvements, they'd raised teacher pay to the $45,843 national average, up $6,900 from current levels.

They also would cap the school portion of property taxes at $400 for a home with a $100,000 assessed value, which would cost about $449 million.

Eliminating property taxes in school funding worries some.

"It leaves us totally reliant on the whims of the economy," said Paul Krohne, director of the South Carolina School Boards Association. "The sales tax alone makes revenue too unpredictable. It needs to be diversified. Eliminating one is not acceptable to us."

Davis said the business officers' group believes state government should rely on three primary sources of revenue: income, sales and property taxes.

"With swings in the economy, it's important to have a balanced tax structure," Davis said. "You don't want to be subject to those swings. Property taxes tend to be relatively stable."

Sheheen applauds the group's effort.

"Their plan dramatically increases revenue above what our plan did," Sheheen said. "I look at our plan as a structural change in the way we do things. We're not so much concerned with the short-term financial price as we are concerned with the long-term structure of how we do it.

"The goal is to change the way we do things, not fight about money," Sheheen said.

Information from: The State