By: SENATOR STEVE DRAZKOWSKI

Minnesota’s fraud crisis continues to get worse, and Democrats and Gov. Tim Walz are allowing it happen.

Federal prosecutors now estimate that fraud in state programs could exceed $1 billion. It’s not hyperbole; it’s a comment straight from the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota. His office has already prosecuted half a billion dollars in fraud, and the cases and investigations keep piling up. These are taxpayer dollars that should have gone to help the vulnerable or provide relief for working Minnesotans who need it.

Instead, it is being stolen on Governor Walz’s watch.

This is not a new problem, but it has gotten worse. In 2016, a nonpartisan audit found widespread ineligibility in Minnesota’s public health programs. In 2019, the federal government penalized the state $150 million for enrolling people who didn’t qualify. Back then, Democrats promised they had fixed the problem. They hadn’t.

Now it seems a week cannot pass without a new fraud revelation. The latest disaster involves the Housing Stabilization Services program, a Medicaid-funded initiative that ballooned from an estimated $2.5 million per year to more than $300 million. According to federal investigators, much of that spending went to fake claims and fraudulent providers. One company billed over $2 million while giving clients nothing at all.

This is what happens when a government prioritizes politics over transparency and accountability. Governor Walz and Democrat legislators built out these programs while refusing to add the guardrails needed to prevent abuse. They dismissed Republican warnings. They blocked meaningful oversight.

And when I offered a simple and common sense plan in May to verify that Medicaid enrollees are alive, still live in Minnesota, and still want coverage, they voted that down too.

The amendment I offered was called the “I am not a robot” amendment. It would have withheld a small percentage of state payments to managed care organizations unless they could verify basic enrollee eligibility. If they did, the money would be returned. If they couldn’t, the enrollee would be removed. If a mistake was made, the enrollee could easily be re-added at the point of care. This is an easy step that could have saved taxpayers hundreds of millions.

Democrats rejected it. Meanwhile, our state continues to pay for dead people, for people who no longer live here, and even for individuals enrolled in multiple public programs at once – and that’s on top of the people who are lying, cheating, and stealing.

New DHS guidance allows people to lie about their citizenship to access public benefits and face no verification if they later change their story. it is an open invitation to cheat the system.

Governor Walz’s administration has made the wrong calls at every step. They cut funding for nursing homes and services for disabled Minnesotans. They raised taxes and shifted costs onto counties, which will result in an increase in your property taxes. They even used your tax dollars to pay for health care for people who are not here legally, all while looking the other way. Minnesota government fraud has spiraled out of control.

Our state doesn’t have a fraud problem because we lack the tools to stop it. We have a fraud problem because those in charge are either unwilling or unable to stop it. It’s time for that to change.

Enough is enough. It is now clear: Only Minnesota voters can stop the fraud and waste of their tax dollars.