Government Goes Green

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty unveiled the "Green Jobs Investment Initiative" to the 2009 state legislature yesterday. It's a group of tax exemptions, mostly for business, to invest in green jobs and renewable energy. In total, the initiative would spend $90.25 million in the next six years.

Image from Minnesota Politics blog.

Pawlenty has suspicious timing. He did not support a Green JOBZ initiative in 2008, and his proposal comes while a task force of department officials and other experts were in the midst of creating a similar proposal. JOBZ is Pawlenty's job creation effort. Said Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL - Saint Paul, "I didn't know JOBZ was (a) chameleon – apparently if it isn't working, it just changes color."

Read more from the Pioneer Press, the Star Tribune, MSNBC, the Governor's Office, Politics in Minnesota, and a related article on Pawlenty and climate change from MinnPost.