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The N.C. Council of State, a body made up of the 10 statewide elected officers, met this morning. For the initiated, this group mainly approves land sales, bond issuance, etc… But the monthly meeting has become a reliable place where one can get a quote from the Gov. Bev Perdue on the news of the day.

Two soundbites of interest to your humble correspondent:

• The House and Senate Finance committees began meeting on their tax reform efforts today. (Background here.) Their first target appears to be remaking the state sales tax system. Broadly speaking, the committees want to lower the sales tax rate (the percentage you pay on any one transaction) but want to broaden the base (the number of things that are taxed). That base broadening could include taxing services.
  
  Perdue said she supported moves to remake the state’s tax code.
  
  “I don’t know what the timeline will be but I think it’s imperative that we start working toward an ultimate tax reform process in North Carolina,” Perdue said. “I have a group of advisors that are meeting with me later this week or next week, who have gone through and analyzed what was done in the General Assembly last year and what we might do in overall tax reform. I don’t think you can do the whole thing year one. But I do believe there’s energy and an opportunity to help transform North Carolina’s economy and thus the taxing structure.”
  
  Perdue has said since late this summer she supports a tax overhaul. If you believe one poll, voters are not so sure. The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank, says 58.5 percent of voters they survey oppose tax reform. Click here for that release.
   
• Perdue had “good news” to tout today. North Carolina has been named for the fifth time in a row as the top state for business climate by “Site Selection Magazine.” Click here to read the story.
  
  There are a lot of people who think these rankings are, well, not all that meaningful. You can’t cash in a ranking like you can a paycheck. So compared to a measure of the real economy, like the ESC pegging the state’s unemployment rate at a pretty high 10.8 percent in September (PDF), the ranking seems a bit hollow. Another example is the whole idea of the tax reform item above: one reason lawmakers are undertaking reform is to make North Carolina more attractive compared to others states. Right now, our state’s sales and income taxes are relatively high compared to our neighbors.
  
  Perdue, however, said there’s meaning to attach to Site Selections’ selection.
  
  “It means a whole lot to me and I think it means a whole lot to the businesses that I’m recruiting,” Perdue said. “Right now I’m working with one of national companies. I met with them on my trip abroad. I mean, we are really trying to build North Carolina’s economy and you have to tout we’ve done historically in education, what we’ve done in business climate. To be ranked in this economy as the number one state in America given the challenges we’ve had … We’ve come through a really horrendous time in North Carolina and I’m mighty proud people around the country, including the bond attorneys in New York yesterday, said ‘Wow, the management’s been good.’
  
  “I know people don’t believe it,” Perdue continued. “I know that people who have lost their jobs are dying around their kitchen table. But this may be one more tool in increasing job opportunity in our great state.”