There has not been universal applause for Mark Dayton’s Plan B budget proposal.

In fact, the Republican Party not surprisingly didn’t seem to be at all impressed, and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner has taken to saying that any plan based on raising the state income tax on the wealthiest has “no chance” of getting through the Legislature.

That means Horner isn’t going to be giving him a big pat on the back for this plan, given that the key to Dayton’s plan is adding a fourth tier for high earners to the income tax tables.

Tony Sutton took little time in firing some verbal shots at Dayton Budget, the Sequel.

“After nearly three and a half years as a candidate for governor, Mark Dayton still has no credibility when it comes to balancing the state budget,” Sutton said in a statement. “In spite of massive, job-killing tax increases, today’s plan from Dayton confirms that he is still $1 billion short in balancing the budget.”

But Dayton Plan B wasn’t the only thing Sutton was firing at. For most of the campaign, Dayton has said that he wants to repay the massive school aid shift – which was used to help balance the current biennium’s budget – sooner, rather than later.

Of late, though, he’s joined Republican Tom Emmer and Horner in saying that repayment of the shift might have to be delayed until 2014.

“After attacking Tom Emmer for weeks, now Dayton admits that he may need to delay repayment of the K-12 shift,” Sutton said in his statement. “Minnesotans deserve more than Dayton double talk on the budget.”

Horner and the IPs were slower still in responding to Dayton’s new budget plan. But Horner, whose own budget plan also falls short of balance, has agreed with Emmer in saying that an increase in the income tax paid by the state’s wealthiest would discourage job growth in the state.

 Horner has proposed broadening the sales tax while lowering the rate and lowering some corporate taxes. Emmer wants to cut corporate taxes and balance the budget through cuts to state programs.