Legislative panel eyes tax subsidy value

A month after the DFL-controlled Legislature passed a wide-ranging funding package for government economic development programs, some of those lawmakers will return to the Capitol to question whether such subsidies to businesses are the right approach.

Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, the chair of the Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs, said he wants to know if companies getting public tax dollars are actually delivering new jobs.

"My goal is to make sure those polices work as well as they can, even if I don't think they will ever live up to the promises of a lot of their supporters," he said.

Republican House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, of Crown, said the review should have been last session before Democrats passed their tax bill.

"I think that if we had a tax climate in the state of Minnesota that was more favorable for job creation, we wouldn't have to have those sorts of subsidies," he said.