COLUMBIA - A House subcommittee took no action Wednesday on proposals to cap property-tax increases at 15 percent, saying the subject is too complicated and needs more study.

Pawleys Island Mayor Bill Otis, who drove to the capital for the public hearing, said he was disappointed.

Although there is not enough time for the bill to pass this year, Otis said he hoped the subcommittee would approve it and pass it on to the full committee.

Otis was one of two coastal town officials who testified that property taxes, which are based on fair market value, have become unbalanced and higher-value holdings are now bearing more than their fair share of taxes.

Big jumps in taxes come to high-value property after reassessments, and those should be limited to 15 percent, Otis told the subcommittee.

He said the Waccamaw Neck section of Georgetown County, the coastal area between Georgetown and Murrells Inlet, paid 55 percent of the taxes collected in the county until the last property reassessment, when that jumped to 73 percent.

"That meant the average taxes in the balance of the county went down, including the industrial base," Otis said.

Average taxes in the town of Pawleys Island, not on the mainland, went up 86 percent, he said.

Leo Fishman, a member of Kiawah Island Town Council, said his taxes went up 213 percent after the last reassessment and that was not unusual for the property in his coastal island town.

Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Columbia, who chairs the subcommittee, said a tax cap would cut local government service. Most property-tax money goes to schools.

"We're not talking about throttling local government or throttling local schools, we're talking about equity," Otis said.

"If you put the cap on, how does it affect the guy out in Plantersville?" asked Rep. Tom Keegan, R-Surfside Beach.

Otis said that person had some taxes shifted from him to Pawleys Island, and the cap will help equalize the burden.

Rep. Larry Koon, R-Lexington, said coastal communities aren't the only ones experiencing the problem. He said neighbors on Lake Murray have been angry about their taxes for years.

"It is causing us a war between people on fixed incomes and public schools," Cotty said.

Rep. Vida Miller, D-Pawleys Island, is the sponsor of one of the reassessment bills the subcommittee is studying. She said people are selling out because of the high taxes on land they've owned for years, sometimes generations.

Cotty said he isn't sure when the bill will be taken up again.