With the 2022 supplemental operating budget, 2021–23 appropriations from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) are 24.3% higher than 2019–21.
That is the largest biennial increase going back at least to the early 1990s. (The average biennial spending growth was 9.1% from 1993–95 through 2019–21.) Further, this is the first time a mid-biennium supplemental budget has increased spending by more than the increase in the original biennial budget.
These spending increases were possible due to a substantial budget surplus. The budget uses 80.3% of the surplus for new spending (including appropriations to the transportation and capital accounts), 14.3% for reserves, 4.2% for tax cuts, and 1.2% for transfers to other funds.
