OSA Weekly Update - 8/29/2025
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
2. Released: 2023 Town Finances Report
3. Deadline: TIF Excess Increment
4. Released: Pension Training Video
5. Avoiding Pitfall: Schools - Cash Receipts
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
Happy Labor Day! Over this weekend, I’m reminded of President Barack Obama’s 2011 Presidential Proclamation. Labor Day represents the power of communities working together for common solutions. I’m grateful to work with so many dedicated individuals across our state, both on my own team and the teams of the entities we serve. No great Minnesota idea becomes real without your work – thank you!
2. Released: 2023 Town Finances Report
The annual Town Finances Report a comprehensive report on revenues, expenditures, and debt for Minnesota towns, has been released. This report analyzes town financial operations for the calendar year ended December 31, 2023.
You can view the complete report, which includes an Executive Summary, graphs, and tables, on the OSA website.
The 2023 Minnesota town revenues and expenditures have been updated in the Comparison Tool. The Comparison Tool allows you to compare information for the same town for two different years, or to compare one town to another town.
3. Deadline: TIF Excess Increment
If a TIF district had excess increment calculated for 2024 it must be used for allowable purposes or returned to the county auditor by September 30. For more information, see our article Excess Increment Deadline Reminder.
If you have any questions, contact us at TIF@osa.state.mn.us.
4. Released: Pension Training Video
A new training video titled “2025 Legislative Updates for Fire Relief Associations” is available on the OSA website that explains recent law changes impacting fire relief associations, including changes to the defined contribution plan minimum retirement age and defined benefit plan maximum benefit level.
Additional training videos can be found by filtering for Pension on the OSA’s Training Videos webpage.
5. Avoiding Pitfall: Schools - Cash Receipts
Schools should periodically consider reviewing some basic internal control procedures for payments received from students, parents, and members of the community. Here are some basics worth following:
- Provide a sequentially pre-numbered receipt to the person turning in the payment. If a teacher/coach collects the payments, the teacher/coach should use a pre-numbered receipt book. At a minimum, the teacher/coach should maintain a list of the individual payments received, including whether the payments were cash or checks (and the check number). The teacher/coach should be provided with a receipt when the funds are turned into the main office for deposit.
- Indicate on the receipts whether the payment was in the form of cash or check and, for checks, indicate the check number.
- Use pre-numbered tickets for events and document the starting and ending numbers of the tickets sold at the event. Have someone other than the ticket seller reconcile the number of tickets sold to the money collected.
- Segregate duties so the person preparing the deposit slip is not the person collecting the money. Have someone other than the person preparing the deposit slip verify that the description of the deposit on the supporting receipts agrees with the funds actually being deposited (e.g., cash vs. check amounts on the receipts match the deposit; the receipted checks are the checks actually being deposited).
The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.