See my edit... I was asking about states with no sales tax. I agree that sales tax + no income tax is toxic. However, most states have sales + income tax. I'm asking if the states with income tax and no sales tax do better.
That only means at state level and most places will add taxes at a locality level. Consumption taxes in general are popular throughout the world not necessarily because they're optimal or something like that but because they are easiest to enforce and administrate compared to income taxes. Just look at our complex federal tax code for what can degenerate within 60 years. Now, with a VAT things are somewhere in the middle between sales taxes and income taxes and is subject to the same political pressures to shift around taxation toward "less desirable" activities as deemed by politicians.
Oregon (my own state) has no sales tax anywhere, including localities.'