Stories Related to Statehouse Beat: Leftover Money For State Agencies Shrinks

In state fiscal terms, New Year's Day was Wednesday, and as has occurred in the past few years, the administration had to use a combination of spending cuts and revenue transfers to close a $60 million revenue shortfall to avoid ending the fiscal year Tuesday with a budget deficit.However, as we've noted in years past, the state isn't as broke as the budget would suggest, with state agencies having squirreled away nearly $285 million in funds that roll over from year to year.According to our friends in the state Budget Office, reappropriated funds for those agencies totaled $244.83 million of general revenue, along with a total of $39.92 million in Lottery profits.On the other hand, the funds that agencies have stowed away have been constantly shrinking under the watch of the Earl Ray Tomblin administration, which has been "sweeping" unappropriated funds out of accounts over the past few years to close recent budget gaps.This time last year, agencies had about $390 million of reappropriated general revenue funds.