Cleaning up government waste
There are a lot of aspects of a senator’s job that are easy to anticipate. You’re constantly running from meeting to meeting, you’re constantly doing homework to make sure you are well-versed on the issues, you don’t get to see your family much during session, and no matter what you do, there will be a certain segment of the population that is furious with you. These are things I expected and prepared for.
What I wasn’t prepared for was just how much time I would have to spend on oversight and cleaning up problems in the governor’s office. It seems like every week there are new reports of fraud or abuse, or new I.T. delays and glitches that cost taxpayers millions.
As the vice chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, I have been all over the MNLARS scandal that has caused severe delays, stress, and anxiety to customers and staff – not to mention threatened the livelihoods of deputy registrars throughout the state. But the MNLARS mess barely scratches the surface.
Here’s a sample of some other cases of mismanagement from the governor’s administration.
- A computer program designed to eliminate fraud in public assistance programs was supposed to launch two years ago, but instead has suffered numerous delays and half a BILLION taxpayer dollars wasted.
- The Office of Health Facility Complaints threw thousands of elder abuse complaints in the trash rather than investigate them.
- MNsure suffered from so many problems it brought our health insurance market to the verge of collapse.
- An audit found hundreds of health and safety violations at Adult Day Centers, which serve the most vulnerable Minnesotans, due to the Department of Human Services’ poor oversight.
- The Department of Human Services waited four months to tell 21,000 people their private information had been exposed during a hack.
- An outside investigator found the administration knew about MNLARS problems in advance and did not act to fix them.
- The Department of Vehicle Services doubled the length of time that temporary licenses are valid for, from two months to four, in anticipation of delays. And if you have a new driver in your family, plan ahead – it could take months for them to get their license.
- The Department of Human Services screwed up billing for MinnesotaCare premiums and then refused to collect the $30 million in unpaid debt.
- Bad folks are scamming taxpayer-funded child care assistance to the tune of $100 million per year or more, and the administration is not stopping it.
These are big problems. Republicans are holding the administration’s feet to the fire as much as possible, but the governor and his commissioners represent an independent, co-equal branch of government – the legislature can’t force them to do anything they don’t want to do.
That means it will take a serious effort from both parties, and cooperation from the legislature and the governor’s office, to successfully clean everything up. The state senate is not on the ballot this fall, but I pledge to you that I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and our new governor – regardless of who wins – in order to make your government more effective, more efficient, and much less wasteful.
It’s what Minnesotans expect and deserve.