Text: HISTORY OF MAJOR CHANGESMinnesota's circuit-breaker program has not remained static over the years. Instead, the program has evolved and changed in a manner which reflects primarily either shifts in public policy or changes in the amount of state money available for this purpose. While all of the major changes made to the program are the result of legislative action, the legislature has not always acted in a vacuum. In regard to the circuit-breaker specifically, there have been three main sources of impetus for change: 1) the legislature itself; 2) the governor and the executive branch in general; and 3) the taxpaying public.In retrospect, the main theme of the changes made through 1981 seems to be the perceived need to provide increasing amounts of property tax relief for Minnesota taxpayers. The counter-theme, .which has become more important in recent years, is that; since the circuit-breaker payments to individual taxpayers are made from the state's ·general fund, theseexpenditures must be limited or reduced so that state expenditures in total do not exceed total state revenues.[See attached document for detailed legislative history from 1967 to 1984.]