Counties warn obsolete state IT—SSIS and MAXIS—threatens child protection, benefits administration and workforce retention

Representatives of Minnesota’s counties told the House Ways and Means Committee that aging state information systems used to administer benefits and child‑welfare casework are creating operational risks, extra costs and staff retention problems across the state.

Speakers from the Association of Minnesota Counties and the Minnesota Inter‑County Association described a broad set of state legacy systems—MAXIS (longstanding benefits engine), SSIS (Social Services Information System), MMIS and others—and asked the legislature to prioritize funding for modernization.

County staff described daily operational burdens. Nadir Abdi, director of employment and economic assistance for Dakota County, said workers must navigate scores of legacy ‘‘panels’’ and that completing a single case can require entering data into about 40 separate screens. He said new staff require 12 to 18 months of training to become proficient, which exacerbates retention problems when employees leave after a short period.

Scott County child‑protection supervisor Samantha Goldman described frequent outages, slow responses and redundant data entry in SSIS. She said the system’s poor usability affects families because workers sometimes cannot pull full case histories at intake. Goldman described a case in which a worker initially lacked historical information because SSIS was down and later discovered prior serious child‑welfare history when the system came back online.

The counties quantified impacts and asked for prioritized funding. Presenters said SSIS modernization has been estimated in the tens of millions of dollars range—presenters cited roughly $80 million to $100 million for SSIS alone—and that MAXIS and other system modernization work increases total costs markedly. Representatives at the table urged using available “modernization” funds and federal matching dollars where possible.

County officials also connected system failures to broader fiscal pressures. Association representatives outlined how proposed state cost shifts in human‑services areas would likely fall to counties and be financed primarily through property taxes; they said moving more costs to counties without modern systems and additional resources would amplify local funding pressure.

Why it matters Counties administer the state’s social safety net, property tax collection and many local services. Obsolete core systems that slow casework and increase training time create direct costs (workers’ time, outage impacts), risk compliance and reduce capacity to implement major statutory changes—such as recent child‑welfare provisions—on schedule.

What the committee heard and next steps County representatives asked lawmakers to prioritize SSIS and MAXIS modernization, to consider federal reimbursement possibilities and to coordinate investments with planned pilots and statutory deadlines (including implementation timelines for recently enacted child‑welfare changes). Presenters said some funding was set aside in the 2023 session and asked for additional commitments; they also recommended that committees coordinate so modernization supports statutory implementation timelines.