1. Message from Auditor Blaha

2. Released: 2021 County Finances Report

3. Reminder: Important Notes About Requesting Certification of New TIF Districts

4. Avoiding Pitfall: Petty Cash (Imprest) Funds – Part I

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

Over the next few months, our office will be hiring support staff for all our divisions including Pension, Legal, Government Information, Audit, and Tax Increment Finance (TIF). If you or someone you know is interested in hearing about our job postings, subscribe to our employment postings email list.

Soon we will have new postings for local government auditors as well. To get a head start on those, contact the OSA Human Resources Director Belle Sarff if you are interested in learning more about auditor or intern positions at the Office of the State Auditor.

2. Released: 2021 County Finances Report

This week State Auditor Julie Blaha released the County Finances Report. The Report summarizes the current and long-term trends for county revenues, expenditures, and debt.

View the complete report, which includes an Executive Summary, graphs, and tables on the OSA website.

The 2021 Minnesota county revenues and expenditures have been updated in the Comparison Tool. The Comparison Tool allows you to compare information for the same county for two different years, or to compare one county to another county.

3. Reminder: Important Notes About Requesting Certification of New TIF Districts

After a TIF plan is approved, an authority must request certification of the TIF district by the county auditor, who then certifies the district's original values.

The TIF District Certification Request Supplement form available on our website is highly recommended for use when making your request (unless your county specifies its own alternate form). This newer form should be used instead of the discontinued format previously provided by the Department of Revenue.

June 30th is an important cut-off date for the certification request. Requests for certification made on or before this date will have their original values based on the previous assessment year, and requests made after June 30th will be based on the current assessment year. TIF authorities should seek to understand the implications and plan accordingly.

If you have any questions, please contact our office at TIF@osa.state.mn.us.

4. Avoiding Pitfall: Petty Cash (Imprest) Funds – Part I

Petty cash funds, referred to as “imprest funds” in Minnesota’s statutes, are authorized for school districts, towns, counties, and cities. Due to the fact that these are cash funds (currency in the form of coins and bills), extra security precautions should be taken to safeguard these funds.

Each petty cash fund must be established by an entity's governing body, and a “custodian” of the fund must be appointed. Meeting minutes should document the creation, custodian, and amount of any petty cash fund. The governing body should periodically review these funds to determine whether they are still necessary.

The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.