Minnesota is dealing with the largest public fraud scandal in its history. Thanks to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and state legislators, the scope of these abuses is finally coming into focus. The indictments keep multiplying, the dollar amounts keep rising, and reverberations reach Washington, D.C. and beyond.
How did Minnesota get here?
The state improperly disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars across multiple programs. The patterns are strikingly consistent. Ever increasing funds were released quickly to the same types of organizations, in similar locations, with minimal oversight, and almost all of it happened from 2020 to 2022.
Was it simple incompetence? It is hard to accept that a state bureaucracy with more than 55,000 employees and a biennial budget of $70 billion somehow lacked the basic controls that any private company would consider essential. Many state employees come from the private sector and know that such failures would bring immediate consequences.
Was it complicity? There is no evidence that the administration knowingly participated in fraud.
Was it political favoritism? Politics is always at play, in Minnesota and everywhere else, but there are usually clear rules, accountability steps, and auditing standards that keep things within bounds.
The most realistic explanation is culture. Specifically, it is a failure of leadership culture. In every organization, culture begins at the top. A leader’s priorities, practices, and vision shape everything that happens beneath them. When a leader rewards or ignores certain behaviors, those behaviors grow. When a leader discourages misconduct and enforces standards, those behaviors shrink. When a leader claims he has no control over his own organization, he is not leading. He is following.
If Gov. Walz had truly valued and protected good governance, the culture of state government at every level would never have allowed this level of fraud to occur. But Gov. Walz was focused on other things.
Consider the context. During the pandemic, enormous amounts of federal money poured into Minnesota. At the same time, the aftermath of George Floyd’s death created a wave of political emotion around social justice and equity. The Walz administration road the wave and talked constantly about equity, commonly described as an effort to engineer equal outcomes and correct historical wrongs. In that environment, the ends were treated as more important than the means. The priority was to move money quickly to favored groups. Guardrails were treated as obstacles. Oversight was treated as an afterthought.
The same mindset continued into the 2023 legislative session. Spending surged and sweeping ideological initiatives dominated the agenda. Good, sound governance was pushed aside.
Today the momentum is changing. Prosecutions are growing in number. The financial bill is coming due and reality is beginning to take over.
Real leadership requires steadiness and accountability, especially when emotions are high. In the military, leaders are taught a simple rule. When things go well, they give credit to the team. When things go poorly, they take responsibility. Gov. Walz does the opposite.
Minnesotans deserve more than prosecutions and financial audits after the fact. They deserve a governor who actively builds a culture of competence, protects the principles of good governance even in emotionally turbulent times, and brings order to the chaos that has squandered both taxpayer dollars and public trust.
Patrick Knight is a former Marine, former CEO, and a Republican candidate for governor.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Patrick Knight
Patrick Knight is CEO of Good Sense Foods.
