Idaho closes fiscal year with surplus, refills drained rainy-day funds

Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) ― Idaho ended the 2012 fiscal year with more revenue than forecast in January, allowing the state to replenish reserves to nearly $90 million after draining the rainy day funds since the economy soured in 2008. The state said Friday it booked $2.59 billion in receipts through June, amounting to about $35 million more than anticipated. That’s a 5.9 percent increase over the 2011 fiscal year. With the 2013 budget balanced, the excess has been deposited into four rainy day funds, including public education reserves that now total about $37 million. Acting state controller Brandon Woolf said in a statement accompanying the final year’s revenue announcement that Idaho’s fiscal house is in good order. Sales tax for the year came in at $1 billion, about 1.4 percent more than expected.

You can read the June state general fund revenue report here , from the Idaho Division of Financial Management.