Observers are skeptical before political leaders convene at Lake Vermilion resort.

Critics of the spending plan zeroed in on a business property tax cut that starts small, but grows exponentially in the near future.

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.

The 38-year-old Golden Valley representative has emerged as one of the DFL's most outspoken progressives.

Economic statistics show that incomes for the top 1 percent of U.S. households soared 31 percent from 2009 through 2012, after adjusting for inflation, yet inched up an average of 0.4 percent for those making less.

The recent record suggests those states that cut taxes find themselves with bigger deficits and none of the economic revival that might stop the population loss plaguing the Rust and Farm belts.

House Taxes Committee moves bill to aid renters, homeowners and farmers.

Senate Minority Leader David Hann argued that the bill was not fully vetted.

The change in Minnesota politics wrought by the 2010 election created equal measures of optimism and concern among the business groups that lobby state lawmakers.