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Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash.
Updated: August 1, 2022
Maine ends fiscal year with $600M revenue surplus
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Maine's Rainy Day Fund now stands at a record high of $895.9 million, which represents 16.6% of prior year General Fund revenues.
Maine ended its 2022 fiscal year with $595.1 million in surplus revenues, putting its Budget Stabilization Fund — also known as the Rainy Day Fund — at a record high of $895.9 million, according to the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.
Under state law, when year-end revenues exceed projections and result in a General Fund surplus that is not appropriated, those funds are allocated to certain accounts including the Budget Stabilization Fund through a process called the "cascade."
For the current fiscal year, the Legislature identified three additional funds to receive one-time monetary support: the Highway and Bridge Reserve Fund, to support the capital improvement of the state highway network; a newly created Education Stabilization Fund; and the Disaster Recovery Fund, to support the state's percentage of costs in case of a disaster declared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"The state of Maine has ended the fiscal year in the black, and consistent with state law, has transferred unappropriated funds to the accounts prescribed in law by the Legislature," said Kirsten Figueroa, commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. "The state continues to operate in a fiscally responsible manner by building up the Rainy Day Fund and preventing the need to bond for transportation projects."
As it now stands, Maine's Rainy Day Fund reprints 16.6% of prior year General Fund revenues, just below the statutory 18% maximum prescribed by law.
Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, said the record-high Rainy Day Fund "ensures that the Legislature will be able to keep its promises to Mainers regardless of what lies ahead."
"Making smart budgeting decisions isn’t always easy," he added. "But it is exactly what most Maine families do every month around their own kitchen tables. More importantly, it’s what people expect from their government. And we delivered.”
State Sen. Cathy Breen, D-Falmouth, who chairs the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, said, "My hope is that the individuals who take over as chairs of the budget committee next year will collaborate with their counterparts in the opposite party in the same respectful, open-minded way to ensure the state budget reflects the priorities of all Mainers.”
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