INDIANAPOLIS – State Auditor Tim Berry on Thursday announced that the state has $2.15 billion in reserves – slightly higher than was announced last week using preliminary data.
About $360 million of the surplus will be used to provide Hoosier taxpayers with an automatic refund of at least $100 on income tax returns next year.
Joint filers will see at least $200.
An additional $360 million will go to shore up the state’s pension obligations.
“While other states are in dire financial condition, Indiana remains a model of fiscal responsibility,” Berry said during his discussion of the closeout of fiscal year 2012, which ended in June.
The surplus is the result of a number of factors.
This includes state tax collections coming in 6.4 percent higher than fiscal year 2011.
Also, state agencies didn’t spend all the money appropriated to them – sending $316 million back to the general fund.
And the administration found about $300 million in misplaced corporate income tax revenue.
Democrats immediately said the surplus is built on the back of program cuts – not a booming economy.
“We still have too many people out of work, and an administration that has no job creation plan has done little to help them,” said House Democratic Leader Patrick Bauer of South Bend. “This surplus has been built by an administration devoted to hoarding your tax dollars instead of spending them on programs and services for the people of this state.”
Berry said the reversions were reached by squeezing efficiencies out of agencies, including rewriting service contracts.
