Counties, state agencies urge accelerated modernization of Minnesota human‑services IT

Chair Torkelson opened the March 9 Ways and Means Committee hearing by saying the session would be “totally on systems modernization,” framing the issue around fraud, service delays and long-running costs borne by counties.

County representatives and state commissioners presented a mix of hands‑on demonstrations and policy updates that, together, sketched both the daily burdens on eligibility workers and a multi‑year path toward incremental modernization and federal funding.

The counties’ demonstrations focused first on Maxis, the legacy DOS‑style eligibility system used by counties for some cash and SNAP determinations. Kathleen Walls, a public assistance program trainer at Dakota County, walked committee members through entering a nine‑page application and said she spent “about a half an hour entering the information” manually into Maxis before getting to eligibility screens. She showed that the same income figure must be entered multiple times and that staff must use a manual‑override function to produce correct cash and SNAP budgets (her example used a $344 gross monthly income, a GA grant amount of $207 and a resulting SNAP approval of $202). “Maxis was new in 1989, and we are still using it to determine eligibility for multiple public assistance programs,” Walls said during her demonstration.

Dakota County director Dana DeMaster described METS (Minnesota Eligibility Technology System) as a more modern alternative that auto‑populates applications submitted through MNsure and automates some renewals: she said roughly 45% of Dakota County cases follow a “happy path” that needs no worker intervention. But DeMaster also warned of persistent challenges: an extensive set of workarounds (she described a manual of more than 1,000 pages), address‑change flows that can take 15 minutes for a two‑person household, duplication problems when clients enter data inconsistently, and the continued need to route complex disability or long‑term‑care cases back to Maxis.

Dan Johnson, an associate county director who described the SSIS (Social Service Information System) modernization effort, said counties and the state are pursuing bridging solutions, pilots, scripting overlays, AI tools for staff support, and a planned integration layer to let old and new systems share data. Johnson said more than 100 county subject‑matter experts are working in multiple groups to vet RFP language, pilot designs and data‑warehouse integration. He urged nominal additional funding to scale pilots statewide.

On the agency side, Teke Brown, commissioner of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), and Shereen Gandhi, commissioner of the Department of Human Services (DHS), laid out where recent appropriations have been spent and where agencies plan to seek federal approvals and matches. Brown said the 2023 appropriation titled “integrated services for children and families” included about $36.9 million, of which roughly $5.9 million has been spent and plans are approved for much of the remainder; she also cited 2024 and 2025 appropriations of $10 million and $35 million for child‑welfare modernization work tied to an imminent RFP and federal review.

Gandhi highlighted incremental wins that reduce worker burden and strengthen oversight: DHS’s renewal tool and analytics work increased the share of renewals completed automatically from 17% to about 70% by the end of the pandemic and “in recent months” above 76%, which she said saved roughly 115,725 worker processing hours. Gandhi said DHS is pursuing a combination of small, high‑impact fixes and investments in enterprise data and product management while arguing that sustained, predictable funding will be needed to retire high‑risk legacy systems.

Tarek Tomes, commissioner of Minnesota IT Services (MNIT), urged the committee to lead with outcomes rather than simply replacing technology. “The outcome simply cannot be to make an old technology newer,” Tomes said, stressing a modernization playbook that begins with program outcomes and then aligns procurement, policy and technology.

Committee members pressed for details on costs, timelines and county input. Tomes gave a rough estimate for a full “reset” north of $500 million and cautioned that a wholesale restart could disrupt services; agencies responded that the integration layer and incremental pilots are intended to reduce risk and allow the state to draw down federal matching funds through approved planning documents. Representative Noor noted that some Medicaid‑related work may draw a large federal match (citations ranged in testimony from roughly 50% up to 90% depending on program and APD approval), and agency witnesses said they are preparing IAPDs and other federal planning documents to maximize matching dollars.

County witnesses repeatedly urged a clearer, statutory role for counties in vendor RFP scope, prioritization, pilot testing and rollout, saying current consultation language does not guarantee counties a meaningful seat in later procurement decisions.

Next steps cited during the hearing included finalizing RFP materials for federal review (DCYF cited an ambitious timeline to submit RFP materials in spring 2026), piloting an integration layer to connect Maxis to modern tools, expanding data‑warehouse and analytics capabilities, and continuing committee hearings and stakeholder testimony. Representative Fashar closed by noting bipartisan commitment and announcing further testimony the following week from local municipalities and businesses impacted by federal action.

The committee adjourned with no new statutory action taken during this hearing; members and agency staff said they expect further briefings as RFPs and federal approvals move forward.