change application from 136 and now apply 134 state nominee?

[nanywrd]

Hello all,
I am an Indian national. I applied for my immigration in one of the trades "as a plumber", in the year 2007 , July. It took a long time to finally complete my application since i didnt have my IELTS cleared. Just recently in february of 2009 i cleared it and my file was complete. I was given extension lot of time , luckily the application was not closed
i applied for my immigration through a local agent. Recently after my file was complete with all the documents , i asked for an update from the immig dept. they said that no case officer has been assigned yet. and even if some body is assigned. I will have to wait until other files with higher priorities are not completed. I dont know how long ill i have to wait.
My agent has said that why dont i apply for a state nominee now. Just to let you all know , I had earlier applied in this category "Class BN Subclass 136 Skilled – Independent", now if i had to apply for state nominee it woud be this category "State/Territory nomination 134"

my questions are :-

1) is it worth converting from general immigrant to state nominated category. Since it takes less time 5 - 8 months ??
remember , i already have my application filed. so might save some time, its only converting from one category to another.

2) would it be a new application ?
3) if yes then would i have to pay the aplication fees again ?

please advise

nanywrd