STATE BRIEFS
For Republican gubernatorial nominee Emmer, tax cuts precede spending cuts

BURNSVILLE (AP) - Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer's plan for closing Minnesota's yawning budget gap starts with making the deficit bigger.

Emmer outlined a proposal Monday for a bundle of business tax cuts that, on paper, would add at least $626 million to a budget hole that state finance officials say will approach $5.8 billion over the next two years. The deficit would grow because the state would have less money coming in from taxes if his plan were enacted.

But the state legislator from Delano said the income and property tax breaks for corporations and small businesses would help the state in the long run because employers would have more money to hire workers.

"The biggest problem we face is not that government has a budget deficit, but that Minnesota has a jobs deficit," said Emmer, who was surrounded by workers and idled machines at a high-precision manufacturing plant called Permac Industries.

He added, "I'm not here to tell you I can save or create some number of jobs. Governors and governments don't do that, whatever some like to say. But what we can do is create a business climate that will lead to job creation."

MnDOT to remove wreckage from I-35 bridge collapse

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Minnesota Department of Transportation will begin removing the steel wreckage of the Interstate 35 bridge collapse from a nearby Minneapolis park on Tuesday.

The bridge steel has been at the Bohemian Flats area since late 2007 when it was placed there by the National Transportation Safety Board during its investigation.

The steel was considered evidence in various lawsuits regarding the collapse and couldn't be moved, but all parties reached an agreement last month.

The department has estimated that there is 1,550 tons of steel at the park. Removal is expected to take about a month.

The bridge collapsed three years ago, killing 13 people.

Daughter: Heart failure killed man found at airport

BLOOMINGTON (AP) - The daughter of a contractor found in a utility area of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport says her father died of heart failure.

Kelly Stalvig tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press that her father, 52-year-old Robert Germundson, died of complications from an enlarged heart.

She says he was working alone Friday afternoon in a secured area of the airport that is under construction "when his heart just stopped beating."

The body was found about noon Saturday in Concourse E above the ceiling where utilities are located. Germundson was an electrician with Premier Electric.