On Friday, PJ Media posted an article about the misuse of Covid funds by the state of Minnesota. Minnesota was not the only state to misuse those funds, but since their Governor is running for Vice-President, it is interesting to see what he did with the money.
The article reports:
Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) spent money using pandemic relief funds that could have easily come from the state’s general budget. It’s not a crime. But don’t you think it gives us an idea of what kind of a politician he is?
A few of the biggest line items should also get more scrutiny, though there is limited information available on the Treasury’s site. For example, the state distributed more than $11 million to the Minnesota Zoo and nearly $3.8 million to the Science Museum of Minnesota to cover operating and maintenance costs. In some ways, that is connected to the pandemic: Fear of the disease and government social distancing mandates certainly harmed museums and zoos. The same could be said of the $237,000 line item for a “movie theater relief grant program.”
But Walz should be asked why he believes federal taxpayers—who may not live in Minnesota or ever visit the state—should be on the hook to pay for that.
As Reason has reported over the past few years, the federal bailout of state and local governments after the pandemic was largely unnecessary, and many governments have struggled to find ways to use the $350 billion in free cash distributed by the ARP. A good chunk of the funds have been put to questionable use, including subsidizing money-losing, government-owned golf courses, padding the paychecks of public employees, and funding tourism promotion campaigns.
The article concludes:
Until someone — not Congress — begins investigating this massive misuse of government power and taxpayer money, we’re in danger of having history repeat itself when the next national health emergency is upon us.
We need someone in Washington who has some respect for the taxpayers’ pocketbooks!