Should Minnesotans take some measure of pride in our governor’s blossoming national profile, or might the country be warned before his ascension is taken seriously? Right now, Gov. Tim Walz is just one of the people decorating the gym for homecoming, having no idea how the cards will fall but wanting to be on the inside in case Washington Democrats notice him in their desperation.

Fellow citizens, Walz blew an $18 billion state surplus. He signed off on a redundant, almost $1 billion new State Office Building. His administration has presided over the largest food fraud scandal in the country’s pandemic period, for which he has yet to hold himself or any of his hires or their hires accountable. Not even the hint of an apology.

Most recently, we learned that the FBI is investigating potential Medicaid fraud among Minnesota’s autism service providers. According to the Department of Human Services, there were 328 autism-related service providers in Minnesota in 2023, up from 41 providers in 2018. And the money, which continues to slip through increasing numbers of hands? The DHS last year paid autism service providers $192 million, up from $6 million in 2018.

The governor, when asked about potential Medicaid fraud, said he was “not aware’’ of an FBI investigation.

By slipping through so many hands in the sudden booming expansion of autism providers, a fellow means to say the percentages are mind-boggling. According to the Reformer, the number of providers — people who presumably treat autism — has increased 700 percent in five years and the amount of money paid by DHS to the providers has increased 3,000 percent.

These are food fraud percentages. Remember, the fraudsters claimed they were feeding hundreds of thousands of kids, even though no evidence existed. TV news programs alone would have been on this nightly if they could have filmed lines of hungry kids going around the block. Nothing. And nobody caught on until the theft had reached a quarter of a billion dollars.

It is not plausible that autism care requires 3,000 percent more in funding in less than five years. Nor is there evidence that a 700 percent increase in providers was anticipated. According to the Minnesota Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network at the University of Minnesota, one in 34 children has autism spectrum disorder in Minnesota. Data show no recent dramatic spike in that number.

And yet Walz is not aware that the FBI is investigating the potential of fraud and has been since June. Maybe he has been too busy as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, tasked with electing Democratic governors. You too can have a governor like Walz.

Having a governor like Walz means having a governor apparently so uninterested in the nuts and bolts of governing and minding our purse that even when extraordinary frauds are discovered, it’s just business as usual.

Having a governor like Walz means introducing more programs and spending more money than can be accounted for, with no rigorous standards set in place to carefully and professionally measure those programs for success or achievement of any kind.

If some fairness can be afforded Walz — he probably isn’t stuffing his own pockets — the lack of, well, just plain curiosity afflicts the feds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cut the food checks. They were then dished out by Walz’s Department of Education. Nobody in Washington looked up from their phone and said, “Man, Minnesota sure has a lot of hungry kids. We better look into that.”

Walz, not counting preening, what in the hell do you and your people do all day?

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

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