Though they are pleased the 2008 legislative session ended without a special session, state Senate Republicans were spreading the message last week that there is still a lot of work to do on the state budget.

While visiting southern Minnesota, state Senate Assistant Minority Leader Geoff Michel, R-Edina, discussed the major victories and disappointments of this year’s legislative session, as viewed by the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus.

“We have a responsibility as Senate Republicans to say where we might differ,” he said. “Technically, it’s balanced, but we know that when we come back next year, we will have somewhere between a $1 and $2 billion hole.”

A Capitol report put out by the Senate Republican Caucus, stated: “We met job No. 1 this year — a balanced budget — but didn’t go deep enough into continuing problems. Next year will be the real hard work.”

The report said the premiere accomplishment of the 2008 session was that a nearly $1 billion budget hole could be filled without raising taxes.

This happened, however, only after the Legislature decided to use $500 million from the state’s savings account, $355 million in spending costs and more than $100 million in new money from the corporate tax code change. This took an uncomfortable amount of the state’s saving account, and government spending will still grow by 9.8 percent over two years, it said.

“It’s going to be harder to balance a budget during a recession after sucking up every reserve and excess dollar we could find,” Michel said.

Though the legislative session lasts for 15 weeks, it is in the last 15 hours where some of the most important work is completed.

“We should not always wait till the very end to do these important things,” he said.

Michel talked about the tax relief that will come as a result of this year’s session. The budget agreement includes a tax relief plan for a three-year, 3.9 percent property tax cap for local government levy increases and $25 million in direct-to-homeowners property tax relief through the property tax refund program. It also includes $60 million in local government aid and targeted tax relief for 15,000 retired or disabled military veterans.

Despite these few positives, Michel said he thinks Minnesota has “some bumpy water ahead of us.”

“This gets us to November, but I think Minnesotans plan and anticipate a little better than that.”

He said he’s worried about the state’s capability of recruiting jobs.

“I worry when businesses have a choice between Iowa and Minnesota,” he said. “With a click of a map, businesses can go everywhere.”