Governor McDonnell Announces $585 Million Budget Surplus for FY 2013

The following is a release from the Governors office:

“The Commonwealth of Virginia finished FY 2013 $585 million in the black. The announcement of Virginia’s fourth consecutive budget surplus in the McDonnell Administration came during the governor’s annual fiscal year-end address to the joint money committees of the General Assembly. The governor had previously announced the revenue surplus for FY 2013, which is officially $264.3 million. Today he informed the members that the second half of the overall surplus equation, state savings, came in at $320.7 million, leading to the overall surplus amount of $585 million, Virginia’s largest surplus since 2005.

This latest surplus puts the cumulative surplus total during the four fiscal years of the McDonnell Administration at nearly $2 billion. The governor also announced in his speech that even while running surpluses every year, and investing in the core functions of government like transportation, education, public safety and economic development, general fund spending in Virginia, when Rainy Day Fund deposits are subtracted, has only increased by a paltry 0.3% over the last six years, which is far less than the rate of inflation and population growth in the Commonwealth during the same period. The state budget is divided into two halves: general fund and non-general fund. The general fund is the portion largely controlled by state government decisions and consists of general tax dollars. The non-general fund is the component over which lawmakers in Richmond possess only limited discretion, as it contains funds that are legally dedicated for specific purposes such as federal funds and pass throughs and fees generated by state entities like colleges and universities.”