Hello from St. Paul,
I wanted to recognize and thank all the people in our district who helped us survive the great blizzard of March 2026! From those removing two feet of snow to our emergency services teams, everyone worked hard to keep things operational during very trying times. To all who pitched and are still pitching in, thank you.
ENDING HOUSING STABILIZATION SERVICES
The House unanimously approved a bill recently that would remove the Housing Stabilization Services program from state law.
The program was created to help eligible recipients find housing. Investigations into it later found bribes, phony billing, falsifying records and billing people who were dead. In four years, the cost of Housing Stabilization Services jumped from $2.5 million a year to more than $100 million, which should have been the first red flag.
It may be a small step towards addressing the fraud epidemic in this state, but it’s at least a start. The bill now heads to the Minnesota Senate for further action.
INDEPENDENT AUDIT FINDS MORE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FRAUD PROBLEMS
Speaking of fraud, the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) has released a report that gives the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) yet another black eye when it comes to its handling, or ignoring, of fraud taking place within its agency.
Instead of investigating kickback crimes, a new legislative auditor’s report has found DHS chose to close cases without investigation. This happened within a state autism program, where three times credible information came forward that a provider allegedly offered kickbacks to families in exchange for their business. Each time, DHS claimed it couldn’t investigate.
Instead of passing the information on to some other agency to investigate, or to law enforcement, they let the claims die. And millions of dollars were lost because of it.
As a member of the Legislative Audit Commission, I can tell you I’ve heard this refrain many times before. I’ve asked about kickbacks repeatedly, and the agency consistently tap-dances around giving a quality answer, stating it doesn’t have the authority to stop kickbacks and recover stolen money.
Well, the OLA report paints a much different picture. It found that DHS not only has state authority but also federal authority and that it has the duty to stop giving money to places accused of offering kickbacks. In fact, DHS has had that authority for nearly 40 years.
Worse is that DHS has likely been ignoring every kickback report it receives beyond the autism program. So, if any other whistleblower brought forward a kickback complaint in any other social services branch located on the very large DHS tree, it would have purposely gone unaddressed. Just think about how many other allegations just died on the vine because DHS refused to do its job and refused to let someone else address the complaint.
It is yet the latest in a very long line of excuses from DHS. It’s clear the agency has been complicit in fraud because it repeatedly failed to investigate credible allegations of it in multiple programs over many years, and perhaps decades. The culture of fraud continues in Minnesota, as does the complete lack of accountability from DHS.
FOCUSED ON AFFORDABILITY
My colleagues and I are focused on affordability this session and working to ease the financial burden Minnesotans are facing. Recently we held a press conference to
discuss numerous bills that would help make our state a more affordable place to live, work and raise a family.
There are proposals that would repeal the retail delivery fee, end the tax on Social Security income and remove the automatic gas tax increases that were approved by previous legislative leadership. Other bills we have would reduce costs on health care and property taxes, eliminate taxes on tips and overtime and even reduce fees on registration for boats and vehicles.
SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT DAY AT THE CAPITOL
As a liaison to Winona County for 10 years, it’s always good to see local soil and water conservation district officials visit the Capitol. This week I met with groups from Winona County
and Goodhue and Wabasha Counties.
When it comes to protecting the environment, I’m a strong supporter of doing the right thing and have tried to lead by example. We can always get more done with willing participation than we can with government regulation.
Have a good weekend,
Steve