DES MOINES — Consolidating Iowa’s counties and benchmarking state employee benefits to those in the private sector were some of the ideas suggested during an Iowa DOGE Task Force meeting as ways to streamline state government and pare down state spending.

Created by Gov. Kim Reynolds through executive order in February, the Iowa DOGE Task Force comprises 15 members, including Iowa leaders in business, elected office and education, who are tasked with giving recommendations on ways to make the state government more efficient.

The task force is named similarly to the federal Department of Government Efficiency created by President Donald Trump that was previously headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

On Wednesday, the state task force held its second of four planned meetings at a state go

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