October 15, 2012

For Immediate Release

Contact: Julie Lund, (608)-261-2162

Biggest Deposit into the Rainy Day Fund in Wisconsin’s History

State adds $108.7 million to rainy day fund

Madison—Today the Department of Administration (DOA) released the 2012 Annual Fiscal Report, which showed the state of Wisconsin contributed $108.7 million to the state rainy day fund, the largest deposit in state history.

Governor Walker released following statement regarding the report:

As we continue our work to build a financially stable Wisconsin for future generations, we have made the largest contribution to the state’s rainy day fund in Wisconsin history.  It’s also the first time the state has added to the fund in two back-to-back years.  This is critical, because as we’ve seen, the economy can change rapidly. 

We’ve focused on managing the state budget wisely and, because of this, Wisconsin finished the fiscal year with a positive fund balance of more than $342 million.

As we continue our work on the next budget, we remain committed to making the tough decisions necessary to avoid tax increases while maintaining services.  Moving forward, our priorities are creating jobs, developing our workforce, investing in infrastructure, reforming government and transforming education.

Wisconsin is in much better shape.  Because of our actions, the next generation will not be buried under a mountain of economically crippling debt. 

Our decisions help foster sustained private sector economic growth and job creation, instead of the double digit tax increases, massive private sector job loss and huge budget deficits we’ve seen in the past, so we can continue to have balanced budgets for many years to come. 

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