ST. PAUL — Since 2004, hundreds of companies have shared in millions of dollars of state and local tax breaks in return for bringing jobs to economically distressed areas of Minnesota. But it’s ...

ST. PAUL - Signs are that rural Minnesota's primary economic development program will survive a legislative attack, but there is no guarantee. The 4-year-old program that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty ...

Companies using JOBZ to expand don’t have to pay income taxes, sales taxes or property taxes on new growth, and startups don’t pay those taxes on their entire operation. The program was created in ...

The state has released summary data on JOBZ tax breaks without offering details on individual companies. In 2004 and 2005, for instance, participating businesses received $18.7 million in state tax ...

Our state's cornerstone economic development tool for Greater Minnesota, the Job Opportunity Building Zone program, popularly known as JOBZ, has been hugely successful. So it comes as a surprise that ...

A Legislative Auditor’s report released Friday slammed Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s signature rural economic development program for being inefficient, under-monitored and over-hyped. The audit-report said the ...

Economic-development officials in Central Minnesota are praising the state’s new program of financial incentives for job creation, calling it an improvement from its predecessor. State officials last ...

For a second time, a state program that gives tax breaks to businesses that relocate or expand in economically ailing areas is the subject of a legal challenge. Several Minnesota businesses that ...

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ST. PAUL — Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s signature JOBZ program for rural economic development was painted as ineffective, unfocused and lacking in accountability in a new audit released Friday — just as his ...