Two of the top priorities for the 2025 legislative session are passing a balanced budget and approving new laws aimed at fighting and preventing fraud and waste in state-funded programs. While the budget agreement is likely still weeks away, anti-fraud bills are moving forward now.

“When families pay their taxes, they expect those dollars to serve the public good,” Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, told the Senate Finance Committee before they considered her bill, “Not be lost to fraud, misuse or mismanagement.”

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Her bill would create an “Office of Inspector General,” a new agency designed to oversee how state tax dollars are spent. The bill is the product of work by Democrats and Republicans.

“I’d just like to thank Senator Gustafson for truly making this a bipartisan effort,” said Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, a co-author on the bill.

A similar bill was passed by the Minnesota House on Thursday evening, and Governor Tim Walz says he’s eager to sign it into law.

“Most Minnesotans understand there’s always going to be criminals trying to do this,” Walz said Thursday. “We should have everything in place to try to stop that.”

Walz commented on the fraud legislation after paying for his 2025 fishing license. He also said efforts to reach a budget agreement with Senate Democrats and Republicans, as well as Democrats and Republicans, who share power in the tied Minnesota House, are ongoing.

“At this point in the negotiations, there are still some philosophical discussions on how you get it done, but it’s going,” he said before taking part in several hours of negotiations later in the day.

Walz acknowledged that an agreement could come down to near the May 19th deadline and negotiations are likely to continue during next week’s Governor’s Fishing Opener.

“We will have the four leaders, myself, on the same boat at Cross Lake,” Walz said. “We’ll be talking about fishing…. But there will also be some side [budget] talk… [like] ‘look, we got a week. It’s time to cut bait and get this thing done.’”

The governor’s fishing event is May 9th and 10th, just over a week before the May 19th session deadline.