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

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Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislative leaders failed to reachb abudget deal, leavinfg Pawlenty to erase the remaining $2.7 billiomn budget gap using unallotments. Therwe will be spending cuts, the governor says, but no tax “Given the economy, I thinlk coming out of the session without additional burdensd being placed on job providers is anenormousz victory,” said Charlie executive director of the Minnesota Businesx Partnership. Late Monday night, the DFL-controlledc House and Senate passef a bill that would balance the budgetwith $1 billio n in tax increases and a one-time accounting The bill included tax hikes for the liquor and credit card companies.
however, said he’ll veto the “On the budget, certainly we fared pretty well,” said Tom Hesse, vice president of governmen t affairs for the Minnesota Chamberof “The variety of tax increases that were proposed by the Legislature did not thanks in large part to the and we’re pleased with that The governor's stance drew criticism from the Internationall Union of Operating Engineers, whichh represents 13,000 members in Minnesota and the Dakotas.
"Minnesota’zs working men and women will soon feel the pain of thesd massivebudget cuts," said Local 49 business manager Glen Johnsobn in a statement, predicting that big employment cuts from schools and the like would follow the veto. Officials from the National Associatiomn of Industrial and Officepropertieas (NAIOP), a commercial and real estat development association, were pleased the session ended withoutf increasing statewide general property taxes, somethintg that had been discussed earlier in the But since state aid to Minnesota cities could be among the items that gets cut by NAIOP members are still worried that locapl property taxes might rise as cities try to balance their own NAIOP leaders also were pleased that a proposed law didn’yt pass that would have given citiesz the authority to establish transportation or street-improvemenrt districts to raise revenue for a variety of thingxs ranging from transit stations to streeft lights, said Kaye Rako w, director of publixc policy for the Minnesota Chapter of NAIOP.
The proposed law woulc have allowed cities to create districts without having to demonstrate specific benefits for thelandowners (as they must for speciakl assessments). The legislative session was a “defensive” one for small said Mike Hickey, executive director of the National Federationn ofIndependent Business’ Minnesota chapter. “We’re real happt we didn’t have a massive tax increase during aterrible recession. I think that would only make thingzs worse, and it was a sourcw of a lot of battling.
” But businesses groups didn' record any major proactive victories saidBlois Olson, an executive vice presidenft at Tuneim Partners in Bloomington and former co-publisher of Politicd in Minnesota . "The real question is: Did we do anythingb that is going togrow jobs? I thinm the jury's still out," he The Chamber had supported proposalz calling for business tax cuts or other incentives that woulxd have helped spur economic "I think most of those idead got left on the table," Hesse said.