OSA Weekly Update - 4/12/2024
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
2. Reminder: Submit TIF Plans Within 60 Days
3. Released: 2022 Financial and Investment Report of Fire Relief Associations
4. Avoiding Pitfall: Municipal Representation on Fire Relief Association Boards
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
Main Street is in a building phase. As the effects of the pandemic wane, local governments are making budget choices to both recover from the pandemic and prepare for future challenges.
This week, our office presented the 2024 State of Main Street. We were joined in-person by an audience of township officials as well as many others online. The following local government officials participated as speakers during the webinar: Jim Checkel, Ashland Township Supervisor; Mary Jo McGuire, Ramsey County Commissioner & Association of Minnesota Counties Past President; Madeline Mitchell, City of Saint Paul Budget Manager; Kathleen Ryan, Aitkin County Chief Financial Officer; Sheila-Marie Untiedt, Stillwater Township Chair.
During this year’s listening sessions, participants from cities, counties, and townships shared key challenges on the horizon, including an aging population, affordable housing, housing shortages, unpredictable weather conditions, labor shortages, and materials cost increases. We made a series of recommendations for local governments – the full analysis is available on the OSA website.
Thank you to all who attended our listening sessions and provided feedback. Because of you, we are all better equipped to make decisions that lead to stronger communities.
2. Reminder: Submit TIF Plans Within 60 Days
All TIF plans and modifications should be electronically submitted, along with the appropriate TIF Plan Collection Form, via the State Auditor’s Form Entry System (SAFES). Please do not mail copies of TIF plans. State law requires that all TIF plans be filed with the OSA within 60 days after the latest of:
- Filing of the request for certification of the TIF district;
- Approval of the plan by the municipality; or
- Adoption of the plan by the authority.
Additionally, plans are needed to generate the Annual Reporting Form for certified districts. Check to make sure all plans for recently certified districts are submitted as soon as possible so they will be included when forms become available next month.
If you have any questions or need access to SAFES, contact us at TIF@osa.state.mn.us.
3. Released: 2022 Financial and Investment Report of Fire Relief Associations
This week State Auditor Julie Blaha released the Financial and Investment Report of Volunteer Fire Relief Associations. The Report summarizes and evaluates the finances, basic benefit structure, and investment performance of Minnesota’s fire relief associations, and includes annual benefit levels, municipal contribution amounts, fire state aid amounts, and rates of return for each relief association.
When a volunteer fire relief association is affiliated with a municipality, the municipality must have representatives serving as trustees on the fire relief’s board. See Minn. Stat. § 424A.04. While these municipal trustees can’t be officers of the relief association, they have the same rights and duties as any other trustee, including the right to vote.
All trustees, including municipal trustees, should receive notice of all board meetings and be allowed to fully participate.
If you have questions regarding the composition of a fire relief association’s board of trustees, please feel free to contact the OSA’s Pension Division Director Rose Hennessy Allen at 651-296-5985 or Rose.Hennessy-Allen@osa.state.mn.us.
The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.