Fire State Aid in "Combination" Communities

Some fire departments have both volunteer or paid on-call firefighters and paid part-time or full-time firefighters. These are often called “combination” fire departments. Questions about the division of fire state aid sometimes arise in these communities. 

If there is a fire relief association providing retirement benefits, all fire state aid received by the affiliated municipality must be transferred to the relief association. The only exception is if an aid allocation agreement has been adopted and filed with the OSA under Minn. Stat. § 477B.042.  

Fire state aid may only be used for other purposes in instances where there is no fire state aid allocation agreement in effect, the municipality’s or independent nonprofit firefighting corporation’s firefighters are not members of the Statewide Volunteer Firefighter Plan, where there is no relief association organized, or where the association has dissolved or has been removed as trustees of state aid. Under these circumstances, the treasurer of the municipality must deposit the fire state aid in the municipal treasury and the money may be disbursed only for the purposes authorized under Minn. Stat. § 424A.08 or for the payment of the employer contribution requirement with respect to firefighters covered by the Public Employees Police and Fire Retirement Plan or General Employees Retirement Plan. 

Date this Avoiding Pitfall was most recently published: 09/18/2026