ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Mark Dayton says Minnesota taxpayers will benefit from a smaller-than-expected budget deficit, but don’t expect drastic changes to his tax plan.

State budget officials announced Thursday that lawmakers will need to tackle a $627 million budget deficit for the next biennium. They had previously estimated that shortfall would be $1.1 billion.

The Democratic governor says he wants to issue tax credits to home renters and give businesses a break on sales taxes for equipment purchases. That could eat up as much as half of the unexpected cash.

Dayton’s current plan includes decreasing the sales tax rate but taxing expensive clothes, a higher income tax rate on Minnesota’s wealthiest and a controversial business-to-business tax.

Dayton will release his revised budget in the next two weeks.

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