DFLers on the Senate tax committee finally released their plan Wednesday. Surprise! It's an temporary income tax increase on high earners. MPR's Michael Khoo has the story:

The Senate plan would raise an estimated $975 million over the next two years by taxing high-level incomes at 11 percent -- that's up from the current maximum rate of just under 8 percent. For married, joint filers the new rate would kick in on taxable incomes over $250,000 a year. For unmarried taxpayers the threshold is just over $166,000.

In all, fewer than 43,000 Minnesotans are expected to be hit by the new rate. And [DFL Sen. Larry] Pogemiller says even then they'd still pay a smaller percentage of their income in total state and local taxes than do middle-income households. Pogemiller says the extra revenue is crucial to pay for increases in K-12 education spending, for state aid to cities and counties, and to maintain the state's publicly-subsidized health care system. He says lawmakers have already signalled an appetite to make those investments.

"Every bill on the Senate floor has been bipartisan, every bill that spends and invests. Someone's got to pay for that. The tax committee just decided how to do that," he said.

But Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung says there's no doubt that if such a tax hike landed on the governor's desk, it would be immediately vetoed. McClung says it would give Minnesota the highest top tax rate in the nation and penalize many small businesses whose tax burdens are computed based on the individual income tax.

"I think in a lot of ways, though, we're about to see a test. We're going to see who controls the DFL. Is it the tax-and-spend Minneapolis liberals? Or is it the common-sense prairie populists they'd like you to believe they are?"

Whoops...he forgot to mention St. Paul and Duluth. The Star Tribune has more from McClung on the tax plan:

Brian McClung called the proposal "astounding," saying that "we want to be No. 1 in a lot of things, but not in income tax rates. This would affect our ability to keep and grow jobs in Minnesota."

McClung said that "if by some fluke, this made it to the governor's desk, it would be vetoed as quickly as we could get the cap off the pen."

But Senate Republican opposition may not run very deep. Bloomington Sen. Bill Belanger, the committee's ranking Republican, said he doubted the rate hike would have much effect on business. "I have to vote against it though," he said. "I'm facing a veto." Asked if there was a reason to oppose the bill other than the prospect of a gubernatorial veto, he replied, "Probably not."

Still, there probably isn't a Republican in the Senate who will vote for this plan. With the governor absolutely unwilling to compromise on a tax increase the question seems to be how long will DFLers hold out for this plan, and how will they put the budget together without it. It should be quite a battle over the next few weeks.

In other Capitol news, the House has passed a K-12 funding bill. It provides a 3 percent increase in the per pupil formula each of the next two eyars, which critics note hardly keeps up with inflation. Here's some of what MPR's Tim Pugmire reported:

Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, chairman of the House Education Policy Committee, says the bill challenges schools to do better. "Minnesota's public schools are second to none in the nation This bill before you today does nothing but strengthen that reputation. But it also doesn't let us sit on our laurels and say we're good, we're very good, we don't have to do anything else," he said.

...Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, took issue with the bill's reliance on property taxes.

"You can pretend in this bill that you're helping. I hope the public really figures this out that this is nothing more than letting us raise our own property taxes. Well governor and thank you members on the other side of the isle. It's pretty easy to find somebody's money when in somebody else's pocket," he said.

DFLers also say the bill doesn't do enough to make up for three previous years of funding freezes. Rep. Connie Bernardy, DFL-Fridley, said school districts will still face budget cuts and teacher layoffs.

"It reminds me of a bee hive. There is some homey in the bill, but our students and our schools are going to get stung. It gives our communities and our students little hope that the cuts will stop. It offers no hope that our local property tax increases will stop," she said.

Bernardy and other Democrats are counting on a House-Senate conference committee to eventually come up with a larger funding increase.

Is that because House Democrats didn't have the backbone to support a tax increase of their own?