Dear Friends,
I hope you're enjoying your summer. I wanted to update you on some recent news from Saint Paul.
DHS audit finds "significant, ongoing noncompliance"
A recent audit of the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) found that there is "significant, ongoing noncompliance" with federal requirements and the checking of eligibility for those that receive government welfare and childcare assistance.
Federal law requires that any citizens that apply for and receive government benefits be checked through DHS to ensure that they meet the eligibility requirements. If these checks are not taking place, there could be tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars being wasted.
This is frankly unacceptable. This is not the first time DHS has been cited for noncompliance, and yet the problems have continued.
Last week, Representative Tara Mack and Senator Michelle Benson, the ranking members on the House and Senate Health and Human Services committees sent a letter to Governor Dayton demanding that they take action to correct these ongoing issues to ensure that your taxpayer dollars are being spent effectively.
School Shift: Promise Broken
We've been hearing a lot of rhetoric this summer about Democrats making and keeping promises. One promise that I've talked at length about was their promise to pay back the school shift.
Democrats made school shift payback their number one promise and priority this session, and unfortunately for our schools, failed to live up to that promise.
They've since claimed that by using surplus revenue generated under the GOP budget, they "kept their promise" to pay back the schools -- even though hundreds of millions of dollars remain on the tab.
The simple fact is that despite raising $2 billion dollars in tax increases that will impact Minnesotans of every income level, they did not dedicate one dollar to paying back the money owed to our schools. This represents an egregious broken promise to Minnesota.
Here's an image put together by MNHouseGOP -- I hope you'll consider sharing it with your friends by clicking on the image below.
Fair Share Fee Calculations
On Wednesday, July 31st at 1:00PM in Room 200 of the State Office Building, the Office of the Legislative will release the State Employee Union fair share fee calculation setting the rate that state employees must pay to unions each year, and determine to what extent state employee unions comply with fair share fee calculation and notification requirements. The report will be available after 12:00PM on July 31st by visiting www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us. Please contact me if you have any questions on this matter.
Events This Week
I hope to see you at the Kanabec County Fair July 24-27 in Mora, including a great parade on Saturday at 4:30PM from downtown to the fairgrounds. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Sherburne County Fair this past week.
Have a great rest of your week,
Sondra Erickson
State Representative, District 15A