Remember all those carefully crafted tax bills that members of the House and Senate created, after much research and many hearings in the first months of the legislative session?

Forget ’em.

Early this morning, the House and Senate conference committee on taxes came up with a proposal that would create $1 billion, enough to replace the so-called tobacco appropriation bond that Gov. Pawlenty has proposed as his one major way of raising new revenue in attacking the state’s $4.6 billion deficit.

The DFL’s new plan, which could end up being voted on by the House and Senate this afternoon, would raise $1 billion by creating a fourth income-tax tier, rasiing the tax on alcohol and taxing “excess” credit card interest.

The one constant in all of this is the fourth-tier proposal. Under the hastily created plan, married couples filing jointly and making more than $250,000 a year would see their tax bite raised to 9 percent. Single taxpayers making $141,250 would have the honor of moving into the new, top bracket, as would single heads of households making $212,500.

The proposal also calls for credit card companies to pay a 30 percent surcharge on revenues collected from interest rates of more than 15 percent.

It’s expected that the new plan, which directs most of its revenue to education and nursing homes, will face universal rejection from Republican legislators, some scattered rejection among DFLers and a veto from Gov. Pawlenty.

So why the late-night hustle? Does this bill do anything to make it possible to bring the session to a May 18 close?

Perhaps.

The DFL conceded a lot in this plan. Recall, the House tax plan called for $1.5 billion in new revenues; the Senate tax plan, $2.2 billion.

It now appears that DFLers will do almost anything to replace the $1 billion in new revenues Pawlenty wants to raise with his tobacco bond proposal. Given that many Republican legislators also are uncomfortable with essentially borrowing $1 billion through the bond plan, perhaps DFLers can find support among some Republicans to come up with another way to raise $1 billion. Remember, if the DFL can get unified support from their own party, they need the support of just three Republicans to override a veto.

This plan appears to be just a door opener to a next step. Bottom line in all of this: Watch for gambling to make a late entry as the one new revenue stream that could bring this session to a close on time.