DFL and Republican state legislators on the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy committee this afternoon got a workout in political rhetoric during a hearing on the state’s unemployment situation.

Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL-St. Paul, came out swinging at Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s performance on jobs.

“Governor Pawlenty has been an absolute failure on job growth in this state. …I’m appalled,” Mahoney said.
Pawlenty, a Republican, is serving his second term as governor. He announced earlier this year he won’t seek a third term.

Pawlenty’s point person on economic development, Dan McElroy, gave a detailed response to the committee after Mahoney asked what Pawlenty plans to do about jobs in the remaining months of his administration. McElroy, who is commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), said he doesn’t want the state to pursue a single, statewide plan to expand the state’s economy. Rather, McElroy said he wants to focus on strategies specific to particular regions and sectors of the economy.

“The plan is to combine regional approaches with sector approaches,” McElroy said.

After McElroy completed his discussion of his agency’s future plans, however, Republicans on the committee jumped in to rebut Mahoney.

Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth, asked the committee’s DFLers, whose caucus has the majority in both houses of the state Legislature, what they plan to do about the economy in the 2010 legislative session.

“I’m curious what kinds of plans you have for keeping the economy going,” Anderson said.

Mahoney said Pawlenty’s only approach to economic development has been reducing taxes. That comment drew a response from Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, who noted that rural DFLers and Republicans support the business subsidies from Pawlenty’s job opportunity building zones (JOBZ) program.

“I don’t think bashing the governor does any good. …Taxes are still an important part (of making Minnesota appealing to new businesses),” Nornes said.

The members of the committee turned their discussion toward an argument about a tax bill in the the House last session that eliminated certain tax deductions and created new credits. Coming to the rescue of decorum, however, was the committee’s chairman, Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia. Rukavina, who has filed papers to explore a run for governor and was also critical of Pawlenty during the hearing, tapped his gavel to bring the meeting back to focus.

Rukavina said he plans to hold another hearing before the 2010 session about workforce and job issues.