Gov. Tim Pawlenty was all smiles Tuesday afternoon. And why not? Not only had he prevailed in the "health impact fee" case in front of the the Minnesota Supreme Court, but he also had the best jobs number of the year to announce.

The court decision means the nearly $400 million for the biennium raised by the 75 cent per pack fee is available to the Legislature. The House has already passed a bill to send most of that back to homeowners in the form of property tax rebates right before the election. And while the money may create some last minute complications for ending the session, it's clear from the Star Tribune story that lawmakers would rather be flush than broke:

Legislative leaders were unanimous in again singling out property tax reductions, either through a Republican proposal for direct rebates or a DFL bill providing more aid to local governments, as tops on the agenda.

Sviggum said the Republicans' proposal to rebate 9 percent of this year's homeowner property tax bills is superior because it would put money "directly in the hands of taxpayers."

Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, said the DFL approach is superior because it would benefit every type of property owner, including businesses and renters, and would provide "permanent" relief.

About all that was left for DFLers (and some conservatives) was to complain about taxes, as Rep. Tom Rukavina did to MPR's Laura McCallum:

"I was totally opposed to taxing the poorest people in the state with the most regressive tax. A lot of people complained, not just smokers, a lot of people thought it was unfair, and almost every person to a 't' on the Iron Range knows that this is a tax and not a fee."

Expect to hear the "t" word a lot more between now and Election Day. Here's what the DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez had to say:

The governor’s too-cute-by-half wording left the state’s finances in limbo for nearly a year. Today, the Minnesota Supreme Court bailed him out. The lesson from this debacle is a simple one: take responsibility for your actions. Tim Pawlenty uses every back-channel available to get around his no-new-taxes pledge.

This ruling does not exonerate him from his responsibilities as governor. He has still raised fees and tuition by over a billion dollars and he has still forced property taxes to skyrocket.

But even as the Democrats complain they seem perfectly willing to spend the money. And they seem to have lost another point on which to rip Pawlenty--the jobs issue. Here's what MPR's Jeff Horwich wrote:

The Minnesota economy added nearly 16,000 jobs in April, the biggest gain of any month in the past year.

April marked Minnesota's 10th consecutive month of job gains. The 15,800 jobs added last month bring the total number added in the past three years to almost 100,000.

The sector with the strongest job growth last month was "professional and business services" -- which includes both high-paid jobs in corporate and financial management and the lower-paid temporary labor sector.

As Pawlenty noted at his press conference yesterday one month does not a trend make, but better for an incumbent to have the numbers going up than down.