Maryland closes FY2022 with $2 billion fund balance

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Comptroller Peter Franchot announced on Wednesday that the State of Maryland has closed the Fiscal Year 2022 books with a revenue surplus of $2 billion in its general fund.

This is the second straight year that the state has seen a massive unanticipated influx of revenues in the year-end report. We’re told that officially, the state closed FY2022 with a balance of $5.5 billion in the General Fund. Of this amount, the General Assembly allocated $3.5 billion for fiscal year 2023 operations. As mandated by statute, $870 million of the $2 billion fund balance was transferred to the Rainy Day Fund and the Fiscal Responsibility Fund, leaving a final balance of $1.121 billion in unassigned revenues.

Comptroller Franchot says this is the first year that part of the unassigned balance is automatically transferred to the State’s reserve accounts. He says that about $500 million will be redirected to the Rainy Day Fund, which will boost its balance to $1.66 billion, while $370 million will go to the Fiscal Responsibility Fund, which supports capital investments in K-12 public schools, community colleges, and public higher education institutions, as well as pay increases for eligible state government employees represented by collective bargaining units.

We’re told the growth in revenue was largely driven by an increase in personal income tax receipts among the wealthiest taxpayers and the sustained impact of federal stimulus aid coursing through the state’s economy.