For Mower County Administrator Trish Harren, hearing from Gov. Tim Walz at the Association of Minnesota Counties annual conference talk about the issue of incorrect billing by the Department of Human Services (DHS) was good.

“He said he does not think counties should have to pay for these invoicing mistakes. Mower County is heartened by this comment,” Harren said.

The issue stemmed from DHS incorrectly billing the federal government $8.8 million to cover costs for counties and tribes to place people at chemical dependency treatment facilities, along with other billing and legal errors.

Mower County’s share of this cost is $77,945.03.

With the announcement that the state has a $1.3 billion budget surplus going into February’s session, there were calls to use a portion to cover this cost rather than having counties and tribes pay it back.

Harren said she knows getting those surplus dollars may be difficult, as there are many other interests looking to get a piece of them, but she is hopeful something will be done.

“We are optimistic that our legislators will gather the facts and find a remedy that removes this burden from the backs of local property tax payers,” she said.

With levy limits for 2020 already set, if counties are forced to pay the money back, there would only be two ways of doing so, Harren said.

“This means counties are left with using cash reserves or cutting other programs,” she said.

The county is hopeful this issue will be a priority in the 2020 legislative session.

Rep. Jean Poppe, DFL-Austin, said the surplus is a forecast and not certain yet.

“We don’t know what that will look like come February,” she said.

If there is money available and once the Legislature learns more about the issue, Poppe said she may be in support of taking this burden off the counties.

Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said he is willing to consider any way to pay for this issue, but does not think it should be the responsibility of the counties.

“I do not believe that counties should be on the hook for mistakes made by DHS. It’s unfair to ask local counties to dip into their own budgets to address errors made by a state agency,” Sparks said.

He said it will also be important to make sure these errors do not happen again.

The 2020 Legislative Session will begin Feb. 11 and end no later than May 20.