On Labor Day, in a relatively small machine shop in an industrial park in Burnsville, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer released his "Jobs-creation agenda."

Today's announcement is the first of several Emmer has planned to outline his plan for addressing the state's budget problems.

Mostly, it seemed, it was a tax-cut agenda for the business community, but Emmer insisted that by cutting the state business taxes and state general property tax, while expanding the state Research and Development Tax Credit and tax credits for investors, jobs would be created.

"By growing jobs, you will drive revenues," he said, believing that such job growth would generate taxes that would begin to balance the state's looming $6 billion budget deficit. Emmer estimated the cost of the tax cuts at $626 million but, for now, did not propose a way to pay for them. 

His entire program and release can be found here.

The DFL Party created a kerfuffle before the Emmer announcement, asserting that the site of Emmer's announcement, Permac Industries, had benefitted from the federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or "federal stimulus," under President Barack Obama. Permac's president and CEO, Darlene Miller, denied that.

After Emmer's news conference, the DFL called his plan "smoke and mirrors," and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner issued a statement claiming Emmer's tax reforms proposals were previously recommended by the state's 21st Century Tax Reform Commission (PDF) but rejected by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the GOP House Caucus, of which Emmer is a member.

We will try to sort this out, with more on Emmer's plan, and more reaction to it Tuesday morning at MinnPost.