A preliminary report from the massachusetts state comptroller's office shows that the state ended fiscal 1993 with an overall fund balance of $498 million. Because Massachusetts ended the fiscal year on June 30 with a positive balance, it has been able to reestablish a reserve, or rainy-day fund, the report says. The report was submitted to the state House and Senate ways and means committees and the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.
State Comptroller William Kilmartin said that while there are still concerns about the financial standing of some individual fund balances, the overall financial shape of the state has improved in the last few years.
Kilmartin said there are fund imbalances in several special purpose funds, including the state's highway and local aid funds.
But these deficits "do not signal a significant or serious structural imbalance," he said.
Kilmartin recommended that the state consolidate some of its 34 accounts so they might be more easily managed. He also recommended that the state increase its use of automated technology and that individual funds' deficits be brought to zero as quickly as possible.
For fiscal years 1987 through 1991, the state reported a succession of overall general fund deficits. The trend changed in 1992 and continued into fiscal 1993.
