The Long Road to Crisis: How Minnesota's Bipartisan Retreat from Oversight Created Today's Fraud Problems -
by David Schultz who is, in my opinion, the best political commentator. From the Minneapolis Times, a long article, but worth reading.
When massive fraud scandals erupted in Minnesota’s publicly funded programs in recent years, the political finger-pointing began immediately. But the roots of the crisis run far deeper than any single administration or party. The story of how Minnesota arrived at this moment is a half-century tale of bipartisan decisions that consistently expanded state spending without building the capacity to oversee it—a failure of institutional design that transcended ideology and persisted across Republican and Democratic administrations alike.
Minnesota’s trajectory offers a case study in how well-intentioned government can hollow itself out from within. Two distinct forces converged over decades: conservative efforts to shrink state capacity through privatization and budget cuts, and progressive reluctance to invest adequately in the unglamorous work of auditing and oversight. The result was a service delivery system that grew ever more complex and decentralized even as the mechanisms to monitor it atrophied.
The pattern began in the 1970s during what became known as the Minnesota Miracle, when the state dramatically expanded its social programs and tax base. This era saw significant increases in state spending on education, health care, and human services. But the expansion of services was not matched by a proportional investment in oversight infrastructure. While legislators enthusiastically funded new programs, they showed far less interest in the mundane but critical task of ensuring those programs had adequate monitoring and auditing capacity.
By the late 1970s and accelerating through the 1980s, Minnesota began a fundamental shift in how it delivered services. Following national trends toward what scholars call New Public Management, the state increasingly contracted with nonprofit organizations and private entities rather than providing services directly through state employees. This transition wasn’t driven by a single piece of legislation but emerged gradually from fiscal pressures following the 1973-75 recession and growing property tax revolt sentiments.
More..
https://minneapolistimes.com/the-long-road-to-crisis-how-minnesotas-bipartisan-retreat-from-oversight-created-todays-fraud-problems/
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