The office of Gov. Tim Walz announced the other day $100 million in new funding for organizations serving Minnesotans facing homelessness. Ordinarily, this kind of news would be met with charitable reflection or the whispered thanksgiving of gratitude; homelessness is a scourge and a shame.

Ordinarily. But this is Minnesota, land of disappeared moola.

The announcement came as food fraudsters are on trial for stealing $250 million of our tax dollars in a scam that went unnoticed for too long by the Walz administration. And to this day, the public remains unaware of any elected or unelected bureaucrat from Walz on down suffering any consequences whatsoever for the outrageous pilfering, nor have there been any apologies for the biggest food fraud scandal in the nation during the pandemic.

Minnesotans might be excused for skepticism with another 100 million public dollars in play. The announcement said that funds went to 135 organizations in the metro and Greater Minnesota, after a “streamlined’’ application process. The process to get money to feed those previous tens of millions of kids was also streamlined.

It might inspire confidence once in a while if the government said of a new pile, “this money is going to be extremely difficult to get.”

From the news release: “The 135 organizations receiving state grants are meeting people where they’re at to get them on their feet, whether providing hot meals, chemical health assessment and treatment, or shelter space, their services are vital.”

Some questions, to put skeptical minds at ease. Please answer, Governor. I’m sure this newspaper would be glad to print your guest editorial.

What safeguards are in place to make sure the agencies receiving grants are real?
Who or what department is responsible for visiting the recipients of funding?
Will homelessness be reduced by x number of people? Such a generous amount of money should compel noteworthy goals.
Will the recipients of funding be required to provide weekly or monthly accounting receipts, verifiable numbers of people fed, provided shelter or treated for addiction? Who will verify such reports?
Are recipients of funding required to provide specific goals and the means by which the goals are identifiable and measurable? Put another way, how will providing $100 million be measured for success or achievement?

Your news release was full of boilerplate babble, but no hard facts.

If, heaven forbid, fraud is discovered, will government employees charged with running the program – the Department of Human Services – be held accountable along with the fraudsters?

We all want solutions for homelessness, especially in Minnesota, where it’s tough to be homeless about seven months a year. But we’ve been burned, terribly burned, and this administration and legislative body, which devoured an $18 billion surplus, remember, has offered no evidence of fiduciary responsibility. This is the administration in which nobody ever stopped and said, “Wait a minute. We don’t even have that many children in Minnesota.”

All we want is for the government of Minnesota to treat our money the way we do. Carefully.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.

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