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CORNELIUS – At a breakfast meeting with small business leaders Tuesday, House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) said tax reform is at the top of this General Assembly's priority list.

“You're going to see significant changes this year because North Carolina has to become more competitive in terms of the tax burden," he said in an interview after the event.

Tills said lawmakers will consider proposals to scale back, or even completely eliminate, income taxes.

"If we can get to a point to where we no longer have a corporate and personal income tax that would be great,” he said. “The devil's in the details in how you get there."

But that means expanding other taxes, such as sales tax or real estate transfer taxes, to make up the difference.

"We're a little concerned with the uncertainty of what's being proposed," said Charles Knox, president of The Knox Group, a commercial real estate firm in northern Mecklenburg County.

He said it's unfair to single out specific industries.

"I believe everyone should share the pain,” said Knox.

Supporters of tax reform say changes will help attract new businesses and new jobs to North Carolina.

"More often than not, either the regulatory burden or the tax burden is the tiebreaker between us and other states," Tillis said.

Business leaders understand the goal, and say they could get behind the right plan.

"If it's broad based I think everyone can agree to support it,” Knox said.

Tillis said any changes wouldn't take effect until at least 2014, and would probably be phased in over time. Gov. Pat McCrory said he will tackle tax reform this session, including changes to income taxes, but he has yet to unveil a specific proposal.