Speaker of the House
Steve Sviggum

Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum and House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty held several news conferences all over Minnesota today announcing the creation of the House Republican Priorities 2000 Task Force. The task force will take a broad, long-term look at the way Minnesota spends taxpayer money.

"We've delivered the largest tax cut in Minnesota history, and now it's time to focus on state spending," said Sviggum. "Everyone agrees that tax cuts cannot be sustained unless spending is under control."

Despite the permanent tax cut that was enacted under Republican control in the House this session, revenues will continue to grow and spending still must be reined in. Instead of waiting until next biennium, the House Republican Caucus will begin to work now.

A sixteen member task force will be formed to examine the state budget and look for long- term budgetary reform in the next biennium. Rep. Bill Haas, Vice-Chair of the Ways & Means Committee, will chair the caucus task force. The sixteen members of the task force will include current committee chairs, senior members and freshmen members of the caucus. All finance committee chairs will serve as ex-officio members of the caucus task force.

"This task force will not simply come up with a list of things to cut out of state government," said Majority Leader Pawlenty. "They will focus more on how we spend money, looking at things like privatization, performance based budgeting, and duplication of services in state government."

The task force will then come up with long-term recommendations regarding the way state government spends the people's money and will provide for more accountability to the taxpayers. Their recommendations will be presented to House leadership before the legislative session begins in 2000.

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