State Auditor's E-Update - 7/1/2022

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

2. Announced: TIF Trainings in July

3. Relief Associations: Benefit Level Changes

4. Avoiding Pitfall: Monitor Federal Grant Subrecipients

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

Thank you for your role in democracy.

For those of you who work in local government, you do the foundational, day to day work of democracy – bringing neighbors together, discussing the issues that hit closest to home, and solving problems. Thank you for your work and commitment to securing a strong democracy in your community and in our state.

Happy Independence Day!

2. Announced: TIF Trainings in July

The TIF Division is pleased to announce two training opportunities on topics related to tax increment financing. These training topics will be presented as live webinars at no cost. Recordings of the webinars will also be available after the sessions.

  • An Introduction to TIF (Monday, July 18, 2:00-3:00pm)
  • TIF Administration for Authority Staff (Wednesday, July 20, 2:00-3:30pm)

For more information and to register please visit the OSA website.

3. Relief Associations: Benefit Level Changes

Many relief associations review their finances in the summer, after completing their annual Schedule Form, and determine whether to seek a change to their benefit levels.

More information on the process of changing a relief association’s benefit level is provided in the Office of the State Auditor’s Statement of Position on this topic.

4. Avoiding Pitfall: Monitor Federal Grant Subrecipients

A governmental entity may pass federal grant funds to another entity, known as the “subrecipient” of the grant funds. A Subrecipient may be another governmental entity or a non-profit organization. In this situation, the original recipient of the funds has a responsibility to monitor the subrecipient to ensure the grant funds are being used for authorized purposes and as required by the grant agreement and applicable regulations.

These monitoring activities should occur throughout the year and may take various forms, such as:

  • Reviewing financial and performance reports submitted by the subrecipient;
  • Performing site visits; and
  • Maintaining regular contact with the subrecipient and inquiring about program activities.

This Avoiding Pitfall is available on our website.