A legislator behind a plan to generate more money for public schools pledged Wednesday to mount a campaign to raise the sales tax 2 percentage points by emphasizing it goes with reductions in property and income taxes.

That will be the thrust of the message Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Richland, said he will deliver every chance he gets for the remainder of the year in hopes of winning support for changes he would like to see in the state tax code.

Among the proposals he plans to make:

• ; Cut the marginal income tax rate all workers pay from the current 7 percent to 6 percent

• ; Eliminate property taxes on cars and trucks in the first year

• ; Phase out reliance on property taxes as the method of funding school operations.

“Those are issues I think will resonate with most South Carolinians,” the House majority leader said.

Quinn projects the proposal he and Rep. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, have devised would cut taxes South Carolinians pay by $300 million, “replacing much of that revenue with tourist dollars.”

The Quinn-Sheheen plan would bump up the current 5 percent sales tax to 7 percent in return for slashing property taxes and phasing out many of the current state tax exemptions. All 85 school systems, the legislators insist, would see more money for education, but would eventually lose the ability to raise local property taxes.

“It’s really a bold plan,” Sheheen said.

“Our plan shifts how we fund education away from property taxes to consumption and sales taxes,” Quinn said.

Quinn and Sheheen were among participants in public policy panel discussion at USC on Wednesday night. Joining them were USC economics professor James Bradley and Bob Davis, chief financial officer for the Richland 2 school system.

Davis recently stepped forward with a different tax code overhaul plan he and nine other colleagues around the state drafted. Davis lauded Quinn and Sheheen for sponsoring a bill that is expected to generate lots of debate in 2004, but questioned the wisdom of doing away completely with a dependable source of income schools rely on.

Davis said the school business officers’ group believes restructuring the current three-pronged system of taxing property, income and the sales of good and services is preferable to ensure schools get a fair share of funding.

Reach Robinson at (803) 771-8482 or brobinson@thestate.com.