The Minnesota House property tax bill gives Republican-represented Rochester a pass.

The bill would severely cut state aid payments to "first class cities" immediately and eliminate the payments by 2015. But the wording of the bill means that only Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, all DFL bastions, would feel that level of pain.

Rochester, a swing area that has GOP representation in the Minnesota House and Senate, would be spared. That's because the measure specifies that ""First class city" means a city of the first class as of 2009. "

Rochester will receive that first class definition, which means a city with 100,000 in population or more, as soon as census numbers come out this week. Since it was not a "first class city" in 2009, it will see a much smaller smack on the payments it receives under the bill.