Last year was the lowest number, 41, of new infestations in Minnesota lakes since 2010. That’s down over 50% since the peak in 2012 of 118 and the 113 in 2014. And over 90% of Minnesota lakes still have no invasive species so the spread is fairly slow.
Cutting this program will allow the spread to likely triple rising above where it was before the County AIS aid program came online in 2014.

Also this wouldn’t effect MN DNR’s inspections that program is funded separately and does about 20% of boat inspections in Minnesota, rather wastefully some would note. Counties and their partners perform 80% of the boat inspections in the State using the boater survey data to identify high use and high risk locations and the high use timeframes. That’s why you see County inspectors on weekends and DNR inspectors on Tuesdays. Some Counties do send inspectors to slow accesses just to keep boaters on their toes.