Gruenhagen: Minnesota’s lack of transparency in government programs

Friends and neighbors,

Minnesota is spending a lot of money on safety net and welfare service programs. According to data from Minnesota Fiscal Excellence, our state has over 227 government employees per 100,000 residents working on public welfare programs, putting us ahead of California, New York, and Wisconsin, and third in the entire nation for full-time state employees. Spending on autism services jumped from about $6,500 per child in 2017 to over $45,000 per child by 2023, and the number of autism service providers in Minnesota grew from 10 to 425 in roughly eight years, a nearly 3,900% increase that is tied in large part to fraud.

And when legislators like me ask state agencies to show us how Minnesota compares to other states, or how our spending has changed over time, those agencies are not remotely forthcoming with that information. They have no qualms asking us for larger and larger budgets, but not transparent about what is going on. We should be able to look at what states like Wisconsin or Iowa are spending on the same programs and ask why our costs are so much higher and whether we are getting better results. Right now, we simply cannot get straight answers to those questions from the agencies that are responsible for the spending.

I filmed a video about this recently. I hope you will take a few minutes to watch it and share it with your friends and neighbors, because this is exactly the kind of issue that deserves more public attention.

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/1vOq3AfiyFA

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

God Bless,

Senator Glenn Gruenhagen