Heidi Heino

“You don't have to be a detective to see that there's some issue there and so to investigate that and check and see if those claims are legitimate, and if they were legitimate, have someone actually sign off on it,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino said a 2,800% increase in payments to Feeding Our Future should have automatically triggered further review.

“The OIG has good bones, but it needs teeth,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino proposed freezing payments, conducting a full review, and triggering an outside audit to strengthen the OIG law.

“It will be less expensive to have an independent audit than it is going to be to have all the fraud and lose taxpayer dollars to fraudulent activities.”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino argued independent audits are less expensive than the cost of fraud to taxpayers.

“They pay out before they have the doctor's note certifying that this is actually true and they have verified it.”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino criticized the Paid Leave program for paying out before verifying doctor's notes.

“Business does a lot with a little,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino, whose day job involves underwriting, compared business efficiency to government inefficiency.

“We need to funnel those resources to the people that actually need them and keep people committing fraud from taking our money and running away with it, buying luxury condos or homes, and then funneling it out of the country,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino said resources should go to people who need them rather than to those committing fraud.

“Government does the opposite. They do a little with a lot of resources.”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino contrasted how government uses resources compared to business.

“When I stress tested against Feeding Our Future and some of the other fraud schemes that we had in Minnesota, it would have found the fraud eventually, but it's way after the money was already gone and we would still be stuck trying to claw it back,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino said she stress-tested the OIG law against the Feeding Our Future scheme and other past fraud cases.

“However, we need to rein it in and have more investigation before we start sending out the checks, especially with paid family leave,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino said Minnesota's Paid Leave program needs more investigation before sending out checks.

“We had 30 complaints to the Minnesota Department of Education regarding the fraud and they are mostly overlooked or Feeding Our Future had to go correct itself and that was a huge gap there,”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino argued Feeding Our Future should not have been allowed to address complaints against itself.

“We get a lot of pushback saying this is going to be expensive, but is it?”

Heidi Heino · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Heino said independent audits would save more money than they cost despite pushback over expense.