A plan to get real results for Minnesotans and make the government accountable.
- Innovative: New ways to solve our biggest challenges.
- Effective: Deliver results.
- Accountable: Immediate action to root out fraud.
Fixing the government is the foundation of everything we need to do. As governor, Amy Klobuchar intends to transform our state government to be innovative, effective, and accountable.
That means modern technology that delivers results fast. It means turning the page on a bureaucracy that leaves people dreading having to jump through hoops to get a permit or start a business. We need the government to make it easy to start a business, build a business, and bring good-paying jobs to Minnesota. This is about delivering a government that moves as fast as Minnesotans.
Holding our government accountable means making sure the money coming out of your paycheck is not misspent. It means rooting out fraud and insisting on accountability for those who stole taxpayer dollars. And it means changing the way government works to stop fraud before it starts — so people who genuinely need help can actually get it.
Amy Klobuchar will take on our biggest challenges and root out fraud and waste. She is committed to getting results for Minnesotans and making government accountable.
Innovative
New ways to solve our biggest challenges.
Make Government Work for You
- Modernize state government to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Replace decades-old IT systems with modern technology, paid for through bonding, so the government works better for everyone who depends on it.
- Make state services mobile-first. Make state services fully accessible on a phone – if a service can’t be completed on a phone, it isn’t moving at the speed Minnesotans expect.
- Track applications in real time. Show Minnesotans who apply for permits and other services from the state what step they’re on, who has the application, and when to expect a response – the same way they track a package.
- Launch a Minnesota Innovation Initiative. Use technology to improve government services, streamline state applications, and make it easier to start and grow a business.
- Launch the Last Mile Initiative to finish universal broadband. Direct state matching dollars to the 120,000 households still lacking the 100/20 Mbps standard because they’re the costliest to reach.
Get New Ideas and Put Them Into Action
- Launch a Minnesota Innovation Network. Build a coordinated statewide system that connects Minnesota businesses to universities, research centers, and incubators with hubs focused on advanced manufacturing, energy, health care, and agriculture – so a good idea from a lab in Duluth or a farm in Worthington has a clear path to becoming a product, a company, and Minnesota jobs. Pool resources and use public-private financing to speed commercialization and connect innovators with employers.
- Launch Minnesota Voices at Work. Tell us your ideas about how to make government more innovative, effective, and accountable. You can share your idea here.
Effective
Deliver real results.
Remove Obstacles for Small Businesses and Workers
- Predictable deadlines, or your money back. Require routine interactions with the state get done on deadline or the fee is refunded.
- Streamline Minnesota’s permitting process. Direct agencies to adopt accountable permitting deadlines and refund the cost of license and permit fees if applications aren’t decided within the promised timeframe.
- Modernize online permitting into a single, simplified, user-friendly application. One login, one place to track status, replacing the disconnected agency-by-agency process.
- Launch a single Minnesota Business One-Stop portal. Consolidate permits, licenses, and business registration in one place; eliminate the agency-by-agency maze for entrepreneurs.
Get Your Money’s Worth
- Make state dollars go further. Require agencies to identify and deliver savings through program efficiencies, procurement reform, IT modernization, and administrative streamlining.
- Review state programs on a regular schedule against real results. If it’s working, keep it. If it’s not, fix it or end it.
- Hold low-performing programs and agencies accountable. Cut duplicative or underperforming programs that don’t deliver.
Save Time and Money
- Leverage state buying power, including to negotiate lower drug prices. Consolidate pharmaceutical volume to expand Minnesota’s bulk-purchasing reach.
- Create a “One-Form” application for health care. Eliminate redundant paperwork for patients and providers by building a single mobile application.
Putting Housing within Reach
- Streamline building codes. Eliminate redundant regulatory requirements that drive up construction costs without compromising safety.
- Build more homes faster. Work with localities to set timelines for housing permit reviews and reduce bureaucratic delays that drive up prices and rents.
- Lower city permitting costs. Provide state-designed permitting templates so cities and builders cut paperwork while keeping local control.
- Simplify homeownership support. Create a Fast-Track application for home buyers that merges state, local, and federal down-payment assistance into a single step.
- Create a statewide “No Wrong Door” network for rental assistance. Route Minnesotans who contact a state agency or local provider to available resources.
Accountable
Immediate action to root out fraud.
1. Stop Fraud Before it Starts
- Establish a state “Do Not Pay” database to automatically block any individual or contractor convicted of fraud against state programs from funds across grants or contracts.
- Require thorough front-end screening for grants and contracts before state funds are awarded.
- Increase oversight by requiring regular in-person site inspections and unannounced visits.
- Review billing changes regularly to identify when providers suddenly shift or start billing for more services – patterns that may signal fraud.
- Provide stronger oversight by giving people the technology and training to continuously monitor data to catch suspicious activity faster, so technology identifies patterns and people make the calls.
2. Hold People Accountable and Strengthen Criminal Enforcement
- Strengthen criminal enforcement by toughening the criminal fraud statute, increasing penalties for organized fraud schemes, and extending the statute of limitations for all fraud offenses involving state programs. The legislature should pass Attorney General Ellison’s bill, and apply the same tougher sentencing to all state programs, not just Medicaid.
- Establish a Permanent Ban for anyone convicted of fraud against state grants or contracts– including executives, subsidiaries or other entities that knowingly participated in the crime.
- Freeze suspicious payments before money goes out the door. Give agencies the authority to stop suspicious payments while they are being reviewed for fraud.
- Close gaps in enforcement so fraud can be prosecuted consistently regardless of how funds are administered.
- Treat kickbacks as fraud. When a provider pays off a family to bring in Medicaid patients that’s fraud in Medicaid and should be prosecuted as fraud across the board.
3. Conduct a Top-To-Bottom Audit of State Government
- Audit state agencies to identify fraud, waste, and abuse.
- Require action plans based on detailed reviews of Office of the Legislative Auditor reports.
- Work closely with the Legislative Auditor by meeting regularly with their office to catch and address issues early.
- Empower agencies and providers to identify and shut down fraud, waste and abuse by creating a clear process that rewards people who report credible instances of fraud and incentivizes the responsible management of taxpayer dollars.
- Protect whistleblowers. Create clear, accessible reporting pathways for fraud tips and real protections for people who raise concerns.
4. Modernize State Government to Prevent, Detect, and Stop Fraud
- Stop running a 21st-century state on 1990s technology. Replace decades-old state payment and IT systems with modern tools — paid for through bonding — that monitor claims, match data across programs, and catch problems before payments go out.
- Create dedicated anti-fraud units in state agencies, with staff who are trained, empowered, and expected to spot problems early and act on them before they become a crisis.
- Establish an Independent Office of Inspector General so Minnesotans have a permanent office to coordinate across agencies and keep everyone accountable.
- Fix the outdated patchwork administering services by replacing 87 different systems with an up-to-date backbone that keeps delivery in local hands.
- Close the revolving door. Ban state employees and elected officials from steering grants or contracts to organizations and then taking jobs at those same organizations.
- Prevent copycat crimes by sharing data, coordinating investigations, and ensuring warning signs in one program are acted on across programs.
