Section 117.38. Annual reports

Each public office, other than a state agency, shall file a financial report for each fiscal year. The auditor of state may prescribe forms by rule or may issue guidelines, or both, for such reports. If the auditor of state has not prescribed a rule regarding the form for the report, the public office shall submit its report on the form utilized by the public office.

The report shall be certified by the proper officer or board and filed with the auditor of state within sixty days after the close of the fiscal year, except that public offices reporting pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles shall file their reports within one hundred fifty days after the close of the fiscal year. The auditor of state may extend the deadline for filing a financial report and establish terms and conditions for any such extension. At the time the report is filed with the auditor of state, the chief fiscal officer, except as otherwise provided in section 319.11 of the Revised Code, shall publish notice in a newspaper published in the political subdivision or taxing district, and if there is no such newspaper, then in a newspaper of general circulation in the political subdivision or taxing district. The notice shall state that the financial report has been completed by the public office and is available for public inspection at the office of the chief fiscal officer.

The report shall contain the following:

(A) Amount of collections and receipts, and accounts due from each source;

(B) Amount of expenditures for each purpose;

(C) Income of each public service industry owned or operated by a municipal corporation, and the cost of such ownership or operation;

(D) Amount of public debt of each taxing district, the purpose for which each item of such debt was created, and the provision made for the payment thereof. The substance of the report shall be published at the expense of the state in an annual volume of statistics, which shall be submitted to the governor. The auditor of state shall transmit the report to the general assembly at its next session.

Any public office, other than a state agency, that does not file its financial report at the time required by this section shall pay to the auditor of state twenty-five dollars for each day the report remains unfiled after the filing date; provided, that the penalty payments shall not exceed the sum of seven hundred fifty dollars. The auditor of state may waive all or any part of the penalty assessed under this section upon the filing of the past due financial report. All sums collected from such penalties shall be placed in the public audit expense fund--local government. If the auditor of state fails to receive payment for penalties not paid within one year from the required filing date , the auditor may recover the penalties through the process in division (D) of section 117.13 of the Revised Code.

Every county agency, board, or commission shall provide to the county auditor, not later than the first day of March each year unless a later date is authorized by the county auditor, all information determined by the county auditor to be necessary for the preparation of the report required by this section.

Effective Date: 08-12-1998; 2008 HB562 06-24-2008