Maryland ends year with a surplus — as much as $990 million

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State House with scaffolding on dome.

Scaffolding still envelops the State House dome as a repainting job is finished.

Maryland officially closed out fiscal year 2011 with a $400 million surplus (fund balance), collecting $314 million more in the general fund than expected – but $92 million less than anticipated in corporate income and sales taxes, according to Comptroller Peter Franchot.

But the Baltimore Sun is quoting a memo to Gov. Martin O’Malley from his budget secretary that says Maryland finished the fiscal year with $990 million in unspent funds, showing an end-of-year surplus that was about 50% higher than expected.

According to the Sun, the memo it obtained said there were $344 million in additional revenues, and that was added to the expected $641 million fund balance (surplus) in this year’s budget. (The Department of Legislative Services 90-Day Report on the General Assembly session [page A-12] said the fund surplus was expected to be $647 million. That is in addition to rainy day fund of $623 million.)

Comptroller Peter Franchot said that while the numbers look good, he repeated his advice that the extra funds should be tucked into the state’s Rainy Day Fund to hedge against continuing economic uncertainty.

“While these numbers provide a measure of relief in the midst of challenging times, the events of recent months serve as a sobering reminder that we must maintain a cautious fiscal course, one that emphasizes savings and efficiencies rather than new spending,” Franchot said in a statement.

The comptroller estimated earlier in the week that the evacuation of Ocean City cost the state $2 million in revenues. But there have been no estimates on what impact the extended power outages due to Hurricane Irene would have on sales and income taxes from lost work and business. There could also be some increased revenues from repair work after the storm.

Franchot wrote that while Maryland exceeded expectations in FY 11, those expectations were extremely conservative.

The annual closeout is a mirror of where Franchot anticipated things would be as June’s figures were closed out five weeks ago.

Figures in the 2011 closeout report, written by Bureau of Revenue Estimates Director David Roose, include:
·      $6.6 billion in individual income taxes, which is 7.5% higher than the year before. According to the report, this is because of higher collections and lower refunds – most likely because people paid lower estimated taxes than what they actually owed. More jobs also could contribute to the figure.
·      $571 million in corporate income taxes, a decline of 17% from the prior fiscal year, and $40 million below forecasts. Roose writes that this is because in the prior fiscal year, the state received one-time “extraordinary” payments.
·      About $3.7 billion in sales and use tax – growth of 3.8%, but $52.2 million below estimates. Roose writes that low consumer confidence, high fuel prices, and falling home prices outweighed growth in personal wealth and household finances.

–Megan Poinski
Megan@MarylandReporter.com

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

4 Comments

  1. NoNewTaxes

    Have no fear, Marty will still get his new gas tax… and for shame those of you thinking the ungodly high MD taxes encourage businesses to move elsewhere…

    Business leave because the cost to do business in MD is high… so we’ll raise the rates on those that haven’t jumped ship yet… that’ll make ’em want to stick around, right???

  2. Anonymous

    How could this have gotten out so slose to the special session?  Heads could roll if it jeopardizes father marty’s plans to push through his plan for new taxes.

  3. SmallBizOwner

    collecting $314 million more in the general fund than expected – but $92
    million less than anticipated in corporate income and sales taxes is an EXTREMELY SCARY and UNSUSTAINABLE direction.

    • Anonymous

      They just don’t get it. Chasing businesses & consumers out of MD results in lower revenues. I’m sure  that the legislature will fix that shortfall by adding more revenue enhancement schemes hoping to fill state coffers this fall.  I agree that it is scary & unsustainable. But I’ll bet that brilliant minds in Annapolis won’t agree. After all it’s a surplus, free money, and they will spend it & demand more.

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  1. Maryland Ends FY 2011 With Greater Than Expected Revenues « Conduit Street - [...] reported by MarylandReporter.com, Comptroller Peter Franchot said that while the numbers look good, he repeated his advice that the…

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