OSA Weekly Update - 7/25/2025
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
2. Meeting: Fire Relief Association Working Group
3. Released: OPEB Trust Investment Reporting Form
4. TIF Annual Disclosure
5. Avoiding Pitfall: Cashing Personal or Third-Party Checks
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
Welcome to our new readers! After our recent Tax Increment Finance (TIF) trainings, we had a jump in subscriptions to our newsletter. The OSA Weekly Update is released every Friday afternoon. We publish updates from the OSA’s TIF, Government Information (GID), Pension and Audit Divisions, along with Avoiding Pitfalls from our Legal Division, deadline reminders and job postings.
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2. Meeting: Fire Relief Association Working Group
The first meeting of the State Auditor’s 2025-2026 Fire Relief Association Working Group was held on July 21. Working Group members reviewed potential topics for consideration and discussed the statutory threshold requiring completion of an annual audit. Working Group members will continue discussing relief association audit requirements and consider a change to the timing of when an audit is required at its next meeting.
The next Working Group meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 12, from 2 – 3:30 p.m. The meeting recording and materials are available on the Working Group page of the OSA website.
3. Released: OPEB Trust Investment Reporting Form
The investment reporting form for OPEB trusts has been released and is available for completion through the State Auditor’s Form Entry System (SAFES). SAFES login information and instructions for accessing and completing the reporting form have been sent by email to each trust administrator. If you have any questions regarding the reporting requirement, or if you did not receive an email with your login information, contact us at OPEB@osa.state.mn.us.
Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB) include all benefits, other than pensions, promised to retirees. Minnesota law permits local government entities to create trusts to set aside money to pay future OPEB obligations. Administrators for these trusts are to annually report and certify certain investment information by October 25 to the OSA.
4. TIF Annual Disclosure
TIF Authorities are required to publish an annual statement containing specific information about each TIF district. The statement must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality no later than August 15, 2025. The information to be published can be found on the "ADS" Tab of the TIF Annual Reporting Form. Be sure to verify pre-populated information before publishing. If an already submitted report needs correction and resubmission, alert us and we can mark the file for resubmission.
Note: The 2025 Minnesota Legislature passed an amendment to Minn. Stat. Section 331A.10 that allows public notices to be published on the political subdivision's website if no qualified newspaper is available for publication after the discontinuance of a newspaper. In such cases the notice must also be published on the Minnesota Newspaper Association's statewide public notice website. The “name of newspaper” field of the ADS Tab of the Annual Reporting Form can be identified as “Authority/MN Newspaper Assoc websites per MS 331A.10” in these cases.
If you have any questions, contact us at TIF@osa.state.mn.us.
5. Avoiding Pitfall: Cashing Personal or Third-Party Checks
Some government entities cash personal or third-party checks from employees or the public. We recommend that government entities prohibit this practice. Government entities should not function as banks for their employees or for third parties. Cashing personal or third-party checks increases the entity’s risk of losses due to insufficient funds.
In addition, it increases an entity’s exposure to fraud. All funds collected by the entity should be deposited exactly as collected. The composition of the funds to be deposited, in terms of the amount of cash and checks, should reflect the actual receipts.
Reviewing the deposit’s composition is one way to prevent and detect thefts involving “lapping” -- an employee taking cash before it is deposited and replacing it with a check that should be in a different deposit. Allowing an employee to cash a personal or third-party check with funds that should be deposited defeats that safeguard.
The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.