news-record.com

When she was asked about the idea of reforming North Carolina’s tax code earlier this year, Gov. Bev Perdue was skeptical that the General Assembly could take on the task and settle the current year budget.

Now that the $19 million budget and legislative session is out the way, Perdue called tax reform a “must-do” item.

It would take a “statewide conversation,” she said, to sell voters on the idea of tax reform “…if we are serious, and I think we must be, about changing North Carolina’s basic revenue source code from based on income tax – both corporate and personal – to one that appears to be moving toward where the 21st century jobs are, which is services. That’s a huge must-do for me and for the people of North Carolina,”

Click on the audio file below to listen to more of what Perdue had to say today.

Perdue's support for the tax reform was one of the keys that House Speaker Joe Hackney said would make any such effort more likely to succeed.

"I want it to be bipartisan, I want it to be revenue neutral, I want to have the governor's strong support," Hackney said. Sounds like that last bit may be there.