PIERRE, S.D. (Dakota Radio Group) — The State of South Dakota ended the 2021 fiscal year on June 30 with $301.8 million in its budget reserve, over $100 million more than at the end of the previous fiscal year.
The State ended the 2020 fiscal year with a total reserve of $193.4 million. It ended the 2019 fiscal year with a total reserve of $189.1 million and ended the 2018 fiscal year with a total of $176.4 million in reserve funds.
Federal COVID relief dollars are a likely reason for the large surplus. Rep. Mary Duvall of Pierre said legislators will find out more when the Appropriations Committee meets at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
By law, any fiscal year budget surplus the State has must be transferred to the State’s budget reserves. In 2021, a surplus of $85.9 million was transferred to the state’s budget reserves, increasing the total to the current $301.8 million (16.6% of the fiscal year 2022 general fund budget).
In 2020, a surplus of $19.1 million was transferred to the budget reserve fund for a total reserve of $193.4 million. In fiscal year 2019, a surplus of $19.4 million was transferred giving the State a total reserve of $189.1 million. In 2018, a surplus of $16.9 million was put into the budget reserve giving the State a total of $176.4 million in reserves (11.1 percent of the total general fund budget).
(Jody Heemstra, Dakota Radio Group, contributed this report.)
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