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Nearly 100 Minnesota mayors — working mayors who wake up every day worrying about potholes, public safety and the property tax bill on their neighbors’ kitchen tables — have publicly ripped the state’s fiscal house in St. Paul and sent a blunt letter to Gov. Tim Walz and lawmakers demanding answers. The broad coalition made clear this is not a coastal think‑tank gripe; these are local leaders from small towns to mid‑sized cities who say their budgets and residents are already paying the price.
The letter lays out the math in plain language: what once was an $18 billion surplus has evaporated and the state now faces a projected $2.9 to $3 billion deficit in the coming biennium — a collapse county and city leaders say began with unchecked spending and poor oversight. Mayors warned that shifting costs and unfunded mandates are forcing local governments into impossible choices between basic services and higher taxes on families who can least afford them.
Small-town leaders like Stewartville Mayor Jimmie‑John King made the case on the record: their towns are audited down to the penny, yet the state apparatus seems to have no answers about where billions went. That frustration isn’t partisan theater — it’s the real anger of taxpayers and municipal officials who feel St. Paul’s accounting failures are being shoved onto Main Street.
This is not just about bad budgets; federal investigators and oversight Republicans are saying the problem includes staggering fraud in social‑service programs, and some prosecutors have suggested losses could be in the billions. House Oversight and federal prosecutors have opened probes into schemes that funneled COVID and Medicaid dollars into sham vendors, sparking calls for document preservation and criminal accountability.
Meanwhile, the political response in St. Paul has been weak and defensive: critics including state officials and education leaders have publicly demanded accountability and even resignation amid revelations of “ghost” recipients and misspent funds, showing the depth of distrust. Minnesotans deserve a governor who faces the facts and listens to the mayors on the front lines, not one who offers photo ops and spin while cities scramble.
Here’s the plain truth: when local leaders unite like this, Americans should sit up and take notice. If you run a state and you preside over a mass of missing taxpayer dollars, the least you can do is show up, answer questions, and fix the broken oversight systems — anything less smells like either incompetence or convenient protection for a political machine. Let Tim Walz know that hardworking Minnesotans won’t accept excuses; they want results.
Patriots who pay taxes and care about honest government should stand with these mayors demanding transparency, prosecutions where appropriate, and a rollback of runaway spending. This is a fight for accountability and for the taxpayer, and it’s high time conservative lawmakers and citizens make their voices heard until St. Paul starts acting like stewards of the public purse again.
