House Democrats want to work on rejected tax deal

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - House Democrats want to get their Senate counterparts back to the bargaining table on taxes even though Gov. Bev Perdue balked at a deal last week.

Speaker Joe Hackney said last night that Democratic leaders in his chamber want to work out a tax agreement that's based largely on a $982 million tax package hammered out with the Senate.

But Perdue said she wouldn't accept it because it contained an across-the-board income tax surcharge on those she called working families.

Senate Democrats said they plan to revive their own plan to overhaul the tax system by expanding services subject to the sales tax and reducing tax rates. Sen. Dan Clodfelter of Mecklenburg County said that the Senate Finance Committee will discuss the idea at a meeting today.