Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) County Auditor Data Submissions

Summary: The School Finance Division of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) relies on manual, paper-based processes between the State and Minnesota Counties that need technical and procedural modernization. The property tax levy process is the second largest funding source for School Districts adding up to over 3 billion dollars annually, underscoring the critical need to upgrade our technical capabilities to meet modern standards.  

Following a recent technical upgrade in 2020, MDE has focused on transitioning to more efficient business processes and technical solutions. These improvements benefit customers, who submit various of property tax levy and valuation data. 

This modernization initiative replaces traditional paper and Excel forms with streamlined digital processes for key submissions such as the School Tax Report, Abatement Report, Six-Month Abatement Report, County Apportionments Report, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Report, and the Taconite Report. 

Through this project and future initiatives, MDE will ensure accurate financial distributions, reducing data errors with real-time validation and feedback, improving the efficiency of data submission processes, maintaining data entry responsibility with data owners, and relieving MDE staff of burdensome tasks such as submission tracking, data verification, manual data input, and error reduction. Furthermore, the agency plans for future developments to establish a structured framework for expanding school finance data collections. 

Value: Improve user satisfaction, reduce and eliminate manual processes, and save time by providing online data submission for County Auditors and School District offices, including online real-time data validation. 

Impact: County Auditors across all 87 counties gain the capability to electronically submit and review data, eliminating the need for manual paper submissions and tracking. Staff in 330 school districts will have prompt access to data online. MDE School Finance staff will have the capability to retrieve and report data electronically, eliminating data entry and validation tasks and reducing errors. Minnesotans and taxpayers will benefit from increased accuracy in proposed property tax statements.