Commitee Budgets Doubled Under democrats Control!

This is a press release from House Minority Leader Marty Seifert. He points out that in just one year of House democratic control, the budget for the myriad amount of committees is doubled from $324,000 under the previouss Republican controlled House, to $646,000 under democratic control.

DEMOCRATS TURN A PART-TIME LEGISLATURE INTO A FULL-TIME JOB

Seifert Says: "It's time to cut government."

SAINT PAUL - (November 7, 2007) - Citing more than 80 committees, subcommittees, working groups, task forces and commissions in the Minnesota House of Representatives, House Republican Leader Marty Seifert today criticized Democrats for the expansive and expensive growth in government.

"The explosive growth of government shows what happens when Democrats take over," said House Republican Leader Marty Seifert. "The complicated and bloated process is confusing to the public, time consuming and expensive. There is little to show for the excessive amount of meetings taking place. When all is said and done, there will be a lot more said than done."

Seifert said it is nearly impossible to determine how many groups are working on legislation and how much this process is costing Minnesota taxpayers.

"There seems to be a lot of repetition without reason. We question the necessity of having so many subgroups working on legislation that a standing committee should be able to accomplish on its own and the great number of meetings being held at taxpayers expense to hear about the problems but not bring forward solutions,"
Seifert said "The Democrats have turned a part-time citizen legislature into a full-time job."

Seifert said at a time when schools and nursing homes are struggling to make their budgets, House Democrats chose to almost double its operations budget from $324,000 to $646,000 during a House Rules Committee meeting in August.

"We gave schools a mere 3 percent increase for the biennium and nursing homes received even less than that but then gave gigantic increases to the Legislature," Seifert said. "This is a matter of priorities. The Democrats ran on fiscal responsibility and leadership. They have failed to demonstrate either during their reign of confusion in the Minnesota House. When House Republicans are in charge, we will restore fiscal sanity by cutting the number of committees by more than 50 percent and returning costs to prior levels."

Seifert said he is most concerned about the upcoming legislative session.

"We have important issues we need to resolve and this process doesn't make me confident that we will achieve those results," Seifert said. "In the private sector, failing businesses are often over managed and under led. The more than 80 House Democrat committees are too busy mopping the floor to take time and turn off the faucet."