County officials said contracted case management helps address local capacity and cultural needs but warned that flat, 15‑minute unit rates are unsustainable; they urged technical assistance and interim funding while a longer rate study proceeds.

Roger Straubba addressed the Koochiching County board, urging state bonding and regional cooperation to meet upcoming MPCA landfill lining and leachate rules and discussing ambulance-district funding and possible local-option tax solutions.

Legal Aid and county representatives told the Senate HHS committee that HR1-style work and community engagement requirements in Article 3 need clearer 'medically frail' definitions, due-process provisions and funding for navigators to avoid disenrollment harms.

Senate File 4719 would fund a multi-year modernization of state human services IT. County trainers and commissioners demonstrated Maxis/METS problems—repeated manual data entry, duplicate fields and training burdens—and urged an integrated replacement with county roles on a steering committee. The bill was laid over and later referred to State Government.

The Senate secretary read a Taxes Committee report recommending amendment and re-referral of Senate File 3596, a proposal to create a one-time emergency rental-assistance aid for counties and tribal governments; the Senate adopted committee reports and approved several motions to withdraw and re-refer other bills before recessing to the call of the president.

Law enforcement and county officials urged oversight of rules that may impose costs on county jails, while the Department of Corrections warned the proposal would disrupt the Administrative Procedure Act’s uniform rulemaking process; the committee laid House File 2936 over for further work.

County officials warned the committee that HR 1's verification, renewal and reporting rules will sharply increase county workload, produce manual "workarounds" that raise error risk, and require immediate bridging supports plus long-term system modernization to avoid fiscal penalties and service disruptions.

County officials warned that HR 1’s SNAP and Medicaid rule changes, plus proposed error-rate penalties, could shift hundreds of millions in costs to counties and ultimately property taxpayers, and urged statutory hold-harmless protections and immediate IT modernization.

A Minnesota Counties Insurance Trust representative told McLeod County commissioners that rising reinsurance rates, higher property values and cyberattacks are the primary drivers of recent insurance cost increases, and highlighted a $500,000 cyber extortion sublimit and the county's favorable workers' compensation experience modification.

County representatives discuss impacts of federal SNAP changes on local budgets and services.

Support grows for STS program amid state's funding reduction from 50% to 25%.

County representatives warn legislators about potential tax increases from proposed budget shifts.

Counties must analyze local systems to divert individuals from justice to treatment by 2027

Counties express worry about costs and staffing due to proposed mental health eligibility expansions.

County officials highlight budget challenges and unfunded mandates during Minnesota legislative hearings.