Rutledge wants '22 vote on income tax

She plans ballot proposal to eliminate state’s individual levy

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announces a multimillion dollar lawsuit settlement with Preferred Family Healthcare from a Medicare Fraud Control Unit investigation during a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, at the State Capitol in Little Rock.  .(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announces a multimillion dollar lawsuit settlement with Preferred Family Healthcare from a Medicare Fraud Control Unit investigation during a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, at the State Capitol in Little Rock. .(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Leslie Rutledge said she plans to try to get a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate the state's individual income tax on the 2022 general election ballot.

Rutledge, the state's attorney general, announced Thursday in a campaign video that she wants to make Arkansas first in job creation and economic development and compete with Texas, Tennessee and Florida -- states that don't have income taxes.

Individual income taxes bring in about $3 billion -- about half of the state's total general-revenue collection in a fiscal year. The state's general-revenue budget is nearly $6 billion.

Rutledge said she will launch a grassroots effort to get this proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot because she believes that the people of Arkansas -- not the politicians -- are the best ones to make this decision.

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