Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology Preston Doerflinger warned Thursday that next fiscal year’s state appropriated budget will be flat.
Doerflinger’s comments came in his monthly General Revenue Fund report. The report showed General Revenue Fund (GRF) collections in October totaled $471.6 million. That was $3.4 million, or 0.7 percent, above the official estimate upon which the FY2015 appropriated state budget is based and $23.3 million, or 5.2 percent, above prior year collections.
“Revenues are solid, but that doesn’t guarantee more money to appropriate in the next state budget,” Doerflinger said in a press release. “The current budget contains a significant amount of one-time money used to fill revenue holes and address pressing needs, which means next year’s budget effectively starts in a hole. The state has to recoup that money via GRF collections before it will have true revenue growth for the budget. This dilemma at a time of lower oil prices and increasing costs for off-the-top apportionments means a flat appropriated budget could be the best case scenario next year.”
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