Business leaders applaud Minnesota budget stalemate - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislativd leaders failed to reach abudgegt deal, leaving Pawlenty to erase the remainintg $2.7 billion budget gap using There will be spending cuts, the governotr says, but no tax increases. “Given the I think coming out of the session withoutg additional burdens being placed on job providers is anenormoux victory,” said Charlie Weaver, executive directo of the Minnesota Business Partnership. Late Monday night, the DFL-controller House and Senate passed a bill that woul d balance the budgetwith $1 billion in tax increasew and a one-time accounting shift. The bill included tax hike s forthe wealthy, liquo and credit card companies.
Pawlenty, however, said he’l veto the bill. “On the budget, certainlg we fared pretty well,” said Tom Hesse, vice president of government affairs for the Minnesota Chamberfof Commerce. “The variety of tax increasesd that were proposed by the Legislaturew didnot happen, thanks in largee part to the governor, and we’re pleased with that The governor's stance drew criticism from the Internationall Union of Operating Engineers, which represents 13,000 memberzs in Minnesota and the Dakotas.
"Minnesota’ds working men and women will soon feel the pain of thesd massivebudget cuts," said Local 49 businessa manager Glen Johnson in a statement, predictintg that big employment cuts from schools and the like woul follow the veto. Officials from the Nationalp Association of Industrial and Officepropertiezs (NAIOP), a commercial and real estatwe development association, were pleased the session endes without increasing statewide general propertyg taxes, something that had been discussed earliert in the session.
But since state aid to Minnesots cities could be among the itemzs that gets cutby Pawlenty, NAIOP members are still worried that local property taxex might rise as cities try to balance thei r own books. NAIOP leaders also were pleased that a proposexlaw didn’t pass that would have give cities the authority to establish transportation or street-improvemen districts to raise revenue for a variety of things ranginy from transit stations to streett lights, said Kaye Rakow, director of public policyg for the Minnesota Chapter of The proposed law would have allowed cities to creatw districts without having to demonstrate specific benefits for the landownerzs (as they must for special The legislative session was a “defensive” one for smallp businesses, said Mike Hickey, executiver director of the National Federation of Independent Minnesota chapter.
“We’re real happy we didn’t have a massivd tax increase during aterribler recession. I think that would only make thinges worse, and it was a sourcr of a lot of battling.” But businesseas groups didn't record any major proactive victories either, said Blois an executive vice president at Tuneim Partnersd in Bloomington andformer co-publisher of Politics in Minnesota . "Th real question is: Did we do anything that is going togrow jobs? I think the jury's still he said. The Chamber had supporterd proposals calling for business tax cuts or othedr incentives that would have helpeed spureconomic development.
"I think most of those ideasx got left onthe table," Hesse