Emmer's budget plan wasn't officially reviewed, state says

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer has tried to beat back criticism for not releasing a full budget plan by attacking his rivals for not running their budget numbers through the Minnesota Department of Revenue the way he did.

The problem is, Revenue Department officials said they never officially reviewed the plan.

At a Monday news conference where he released $626 million in proposed business tax cuts and incentives, Emmer told reporters, "I went to the Department of Revenue and I said, 'Please run these numbers and tell me what they are going to be.'"

At a debate Tuesday, he stepped up the pressure on rivals to do the same: "Will you guys agree -- just commit today -- that you'll take your plan, just like we took ours, take it to the people that have the computer-modeling capabilities and show everybody?"

But Emmer's proposal never got vetted by number-crunching computers, according to the Revenue Department. "That's overstating the level of analysis," said state Revenue Commissioner Ward Einess.

Einess said he got a call from Emmer's campaign Friday evening asking for a review of the plan over the holiday weekend so the campaign could unveil it Monday. He said he spent a couple of hours checking the plan against existing information.

"This was on-the-fly," said Einess, a Pawlenty appointee who makes $108,400 a year. "They weren't really confident, so they were feeling a little bit of pressure there. They wanted another set of eyes on it to make sure it passed the smell test."

So far, the Revenue Department has been asked to check more than 15 proposals for the campaigns, Einess said.

The department is now reviewing DFLer Mark Dayton's proposal to raise income taxes on high earners. His campaign declined to comment.

Independence Party candidate Tom Horner, who has proposed expanding the sales tax to balance the budget, said the Revenue Department might have signed off on the amount of dollars involved in Emmer's proposal, "but whether the policy makes sense is a different question."