North Carolina Republicans Take Aim at State Income Tax

Effort to try to eliminate it

At the moment, seven states across the country don't levy a tax on income, and North Carolina Republicans want to make it eight, according to a powerful member of the state legislature.

State Sen. Bob Rucho, a Mecklenburg County Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Wednesday that he hoped to use the 2015 legislative session to eliminate the state income tax, replacing it with a consumption-based sales tax to make up for the lost revenue.

"That's a direction we'd like to go," Rucho said in an interview as the state Senate adjourned for the year. Rucho said it was impractical to push for such a steep cut during a short session the legislature holds in even-numbered years, but that cutting the income tax was a top priority of his when the legislature reconvenes for its biennial full session.