South Dakota Ends Fiscal Year With Surplus

South Dakota state government closed the 2018 budget year on June 30 marking the seventh consecutive year with a surplus. The state general fund budget for Fiscal Year 2018 ended with lower expenditures and higher revenues than budgeted.
 
State agencies demonstrated fiscal restraint by spending $10.7 million, or 0.67%, less than appropriated. Additionally, revenue for fiscal year 2018 exceeded estimates adopted by the Legislature last March by $6.2 million, or 0.38%. In total, the state’s budget for fiscal year 2018 ended with a $16.9 million surplus.
 
“This marks the seventh consecutive year that we have maintained a structurally balanced budget. This was my number one priority when I took office and it still is as I finish my term as Governor,” said Gov. Daugaard. “Finishing fiscal year 2018 in the black puts South Dakota’s budget in a positive position as we begin the 2019 fiscal year.”
 
Collectively, the three branches of state government spent $10.7 million less than appropriated. Of the general fund reversions, $8.5 million came from Executive Branch agencies, and $2.2 million came from the Unified Judicial System, the Legislature, the Board of Regents and constitutional offices.
 
South Dakota’s sales and use tax receipts, the state’s largest revenue source, finished the fiscal year growing 4.0% over the prior fiscal year. Collections from the sales and use tax accounted for 61 percent of total general fund receipts in Fiscal Year 2018.
 
Other sources of revenue with notable increases were the insurance company tax and lottery revenue, which grew 9.3 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, over FY2017. Ongoing receipts to the general fund totaled $1,593.4 million which grew 3.4 percent compared to the previous year.  
 
South Dakota state government ended FY2018 by transferring $16.9 million to the Budget Reserve Fund, as required by law. The state’s Budget Reserve Fund now has a $132.4 million balance and the General Revenue Replacement Fund has a $44.0 million balance. The combination of those two funds, totaling $176.4 million, represents a combined reserve of 11.1 percent of the total general fund budget for FY2018.