Where's Minnesotans' missing Walz Checks?

During the 2022 campaign, Gov. Tim Walz, (DFL-MN), promised Minnesotans a $2,000 "Walz Check" as part of the anticipated Minnesota state record budget surplus. Little did he know that the projected budget surplus would skyrocket to a projected $18,000,000,000 ($18 Billion). Those would've been the good old days if the DFL Trifecta acted responsibly.

The Trifecta meant the DFL totally controlled Minnesota state government. Acting responsibly wasn't part of the DFL's agenda. According to KSTP's At Issue, "The state’s budget shows a short-term surplus of $616 million. Hauser sat down one-on-one with Tim Walz to discuss the 2024 presidential election, the state budget, power-sharing in the Minnesota House, and more. Republicans are seeking a new election for a Scott County house seat after 21 ballots were mistakenly discarded."

Instead of giving each Minnesotan their $2,000 Walz Check, each Minnesotan who qualified got a $260 Walz Check. To give you an idea of the difference between $2,000 and $260, $2,000 would've paid the first half of last year's property tax and a month of groceries. The $260 Check paid for a month of groceries. That's quite a difference. This At Issue includes a lengthy one-on-one interview with Gov. Walz spinning most of the time:

In his interview, Gov. Walz insisted that the DFL spent money wisely. That's hogwash. At the end of the 2023 session, the DFL insisted that they'd "fully funded" Minnesota's public schools. This MPR article reports something entirely different:

"The survey, which was conducted by the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, shows districts face more than $300 million in shortfalls for the 2024-25 school year, with nearly two-thirds of that gap centered in Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools."

St. Paul leaders have said during the current teacher contract negotiations that the district faces a $108 million shortfall. The AMSD survey has Minneapolis reporting a $90 million projected deficit currently for the next school year.

Anoka-Hennepin, the state’s largest school district, reported needing to close a $24 million gap.

How is that fully funding schools and spending money wisely? If that's Gov. Walz's definition of spending money wisely, I don't want to see Gov. Walz's definition of spending money foolishly. Frankly, if these districts were private companies, their senior management would've been terminated immediately.

This might explain what's happening:

School leaders say the projected shortfalls are due to a combination of inflation, sunsetting pandemic funds and costs from new legislative requirements. Some districts say they will need to consider laying off staff, cutting programs and using up fund balances as a result of the projected shortfalls.

How much of these deficits is caused by interpreters hired to teach English to children of illegal aliens? I know it wasn't mentioned but those children have costs attached to them. Further, in 2023, the legislature expanded an existing program to payu for the breakfast and lunch for every student. How is that spending money wisely? It's worth noting that some of the students getting free breakfasts and lunches have parents who made too much to qualify for the pathetic Walz Check. NOTE TO MNGOP: Means-testing this program should be the first budget cut. Eliminating funding for the breakfasts and lunches for children of illegal aliens should be the next budget cut. If they're here illegally, I shouldn't have to pay for their education, much less their meals. To use an old phrase, "Money doesn't grow on trees."

House GOP Leader Lisa DeMuth (pronounced DAY-Muth) said "Democrats spent everything that they could, yet Minnesota government got a 40% raise." That's a $13,000,000,000 ($13 Billion) increase. After this biennium, Minnesota is projected to face a $5,100,000,000 ($5.1 Billion) Deficit.

Those aren't investments in Minnesota's future. That's just foolishly spending taxpayers' money without paying attention to how much of the taxpayers' money is spent by people who didn't qualify for programs. Think Feeding Our Future. That program alone spent roughly $250,000,000 on fraud. If that's Gov. Walz's definition of spending wisely, I don't want to see his definition of foolishly spending money.

The DFL hasn't paid much attention to oversight of these types of accounts. It's time to start immediately.