Auditor / Treasurer

The Auditor-Treasurer is a constitutional officer who is appointed by the Board of Commissioners.

The Auditor-Treasurer office performs the following duties, among others:

Duties

Vitals

Birth, death, and marriage certificates are issued and maintained by the auditor-treasurer office.

Property Tax Collections

All real, personal property, and mobile home taxes are collected by this office.  After the tax collection period, this office must pay the treasurers of the school districts, cities, townships, and special taxing districts the money collected on their behalf.

Special Assessment Collections

This office collects special assessments for cities and townships relating to water, sewer, sidewalk, curb and gutter, Septic, and ditch repairs, and then remits the money to the appropriate taxing authority.

Elections

The auditor-treasurer office is responsible for administrating elections locally.  This office provides election training for city and township clerks and officials, ordering ballots, registering voters, administering absentee voting ballot requests, providing ballots and elections supplies to the county’s voting precincts, receiving and tabulating election ballots, and reporting the results to secretary of state.

Delinquent Taxes

This office monitors unpaid property taxes.  Unpaid taxes become delinquent on January 2 of the following year in which they were payable.  Property owners with first year delinquent taxes are notified and delinquent parcels are published in the newspaper each March.  Interest accrues on the unpaid taxes until paid in full.

Property Tax Forfeitures

This office administers the process of tax forfeiture when the property taxes on parcels go unpaid for 3 years.  Property owners facing tax forfeiture are sent a Notice of Expiration of Redemption which gives them a deadline to pay up the delinquent taxes to stop the tax forfeiture process. If this deadline is not met, the property forfeits to the State of Minnesota. The county is responsible to maintain these properties. The tax forfeiture process concludes by the county holding a public auction to sell the affected parcels so that the property returns to the tax rolls.

Licenses

This office issues licenses to businesses for alcohol sales (if located outside of city limits), tobacco sales (if not issued by the city), transient merchant sales, and auctioneers.

Notary

This office has staff who can provide notary public services.

Records

The auditor-treasurer signs all warrants and checks issued against the county.

2026 Fee Schedule

  See pages 4-9 for the Auditor-Treasurer's Office specific fee schedule