State receipts better than estimated for fiscal year

The State Budget Director’s Office announced Thursday receipts for the General Fund exceeded revenue estimates for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, while the Road Fund came in slightly below the forecast.

General Fund receipts for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) totaled $15,571.3 million, exceeding FY23 total revenue by $423.6 million, or 2.8 percent. General Fund revenues narrowly exceeded the revised, official revenue estimates by $16.8 million in FY24, the most accurate revenue forecast since Kentucky’s consensus forecasting process began in 1996.

Final General Fund receipts were $1.4 billion more than the original estimate used when the FY24 budget was set in the 2022 legislative session. That estimate was revised in December 2023 and the General Assembly appropriated all of that forecasted revenue surplus to the Budget Reserve Trust Fund in the 2024 legislative session. Once the fiscal year’s accounting records are closed later this month, FY24 will reflect the fourth consecutive year with a surplus of over $1 billion.

Road Fund revenues totaled $1,874.6 million, $121.3 million, or 6.9 percent greater than the FY23 total.  Road Fund revenues narrowly differed from the revised, official FY24 Road Fund estimate, coming in $7.1 million less. However, the Road Fund receipts for FY24 were $195 million more than the original estimate used when the FY24 budget was set in the 2022 legislative session. That forecasted surplus was appropriated to the Biennial Highway Plan in the 2024 legislative session.

State Budget Director John Hicks said, “The fiscal health of the commonwealth is apparent when reviewing the FY24 final General Fund and Road Fund revenue totals. While both funds produced revenues nearly identical to the revised FY24 estimates, they resulted in a substantial surplus when compared to the revenue estimates used in the development of the original FY24 budget.”

He added: “Beyond the economic gains underlying the revenues, the emergence of investment income as a significant General Fund revenue source has occurred in a span of just two fiscal years: $300 million in FY24 and $150 million in FY23, due to higher investible balances and favorable rates of return.  By way of comparison, for the 10-year period from FY13 until FY22, investment income averaged negative $2.4 million annually.”

Find out details of the reports by going to osbd.ky.gov .

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