Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been getting considerable grief lately, mostly for his non-existent oversight of welfare programs.
The New York Times estimates there have been around $1 billion in thefts of taxpayer dollars. Dozens of prosecutions preceded the recent nationwide reporting on this fiasco. There will be many more in this story of legal immigrants who responded to this country’s warm embrace by grabbing with both hands.
But back to Walz, whose run for a third term isn’t helped by his administrative failures. Consistent with his administrative shortfall, he exacerbated the problem with his less-than-outraged response.
“We are a state that chooses not to let people go hungry or homeless or uneducated,” he said. “However, that generosity has been taken advantage of by an organized group of fraudsters and criminals. Minnesota’s longstanding high standards of integrity of public funds go hand in hand with a culture of generosity. You can’t have one without the other.”
Actually, Minnesota did have one with the other, and that’s Walz’s problem — no oversight.
But before there’s a chorus of tut-tutting, sanctimonious Illinoisans should remember one thing: When it comes to state government, Illinois is the equivalent of an open sewer. Between our sleazy politicians and our incompetent politicians, the Land of Lincoln can give the Land of 1,000 Lakes a good run for its money.
Our political class has permanent booking for federal prison space for their larcenous ways. But even that pales in comparison to the fiscal foolishness that has driven Illinois many, may billions of dollars in debt.
Here’s just one example. In recent years, Illinois spent about $400 million on health care for illegal immigrants.
Why? Legislators were told by then-state Rep. Delia Ramirez, who has since been elected to Congress, that a program to provide medical care for illegal immigrants would cost a mere $2 million.
The first year it actually cost $188 million, and it increased to roughly $400 million over three years. Taxpayers’ money wasn’t stolen, but it was squandered.
That kind of misconduct is just the tip of the iceberg.
Executive Inspector General Susan Haling this week released a report on misconduct by government employees that revealed her office received 3,907 complaints in the 2025 fiscal year and completed just 228 investigations.
If it looks like they’re swamped with allegations of wrongdoing, it’s because they are.
Public employees engaged in all kinds of misconduct, ranging from the personal (sexual harassment) to unlawful (outright theft).
By far, the most pervasive form of misconduct involved hundreds of public employees defrauding the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program that dates back to 2020.
Illinois’ PPP program apparently was overseen in the same manner as Minnesota’s welfare program: Ask and you shall receive.
There was no interest in seeing if applications were legitimate. The report lists page after page of confirmed frauds by state employees. Entire offices must have been involved in these scams.
There was other misconduct reported, one involving a hard-working human-resources manager who managed a restaurant while on state time.
Another office manager was “working as a Realtor showing houses during state time.”
One big fraud involved the Chicago Transit Authority, which paid $1.1 million to employees to work at home even though the jobs they held made it impossible to do so.
What’s disturbing is the inspector general’s report barely scratches the surface of the financial beating inflicted on taxpayers.
So, sure, Minnesota’s governor faces especially big problems stemming from his handling of public funds. But he’s not the Lone Ranger on this one.
