House Republicans introduced the specifics behind their $2 billion tax cut in a Monday announcement, detailing a broad agenda that would slash income, business and sales taxes.

Stung by slowing revenue streams, a few Republican governors, led by Sam Brownback of Kansas and John Kasich of Ohio, have gone so far as to propose their own tax hikes.

Republican legislators and candidates have seized on the run of disappointing tax collection figures, saying it's a clear indication that the state is headed in the wrong direction.

The Minnesota House and Senate conferees must reconcile vastly different bills.

In an afternoon hearing of the taxes conference committee on Thursday, just one day before a self-imposed deadline to compete work on a final taxes bill that raises about $2 billion in revenue, DFL Senate Taxes Chairman Rod Skoe suggested that tax conferees meet with legislative leadership throughout the day to make sure they understands the budget agreement struck with Gov. Mark Dayton earlier this week.

The nearly $2.5 billion that Minnesota collected in net taxes in February and March was $106 million, or 4.4 percent, more than was predicted in the February economic forecast, according to the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget.

Baseball Hall-of-Famer George Brett once said that “if a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out.”

The House GOP proposal includes a $221-million income tax reduction for lower and middle income Minnesotans for the 2012-2013 biennium.

Contributing to Minnesota's low ranking is its corporate tax rate, income tax rate, sales tax rate and unemployment tax rate, all of which are scored near the bottom on a scale of 1 to 50.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton released an updated budget plan to close the state's nearly $6 billion budget deficit, but even this revised budget falls nearly $1 billion short of closing the state's entire deficit.