Institutional Federal Compliance Report 2021

______________________________________________________________________________________________ STATE OF NEW YORK • 25

The Enterprise Funds financial statements provide the same type of information found in the government-wide financial statements, but in more detail. The change in net position of the Enterprise Funds has already been discussed in the preceding discussion of business-type activities. General Fund Budgetary Highlights The State’s financial plan, which uses the cash basis of accounting, is updated quarterly throughout the year as required by the State Finance Law. The quarterly updates to the 2017-18 financial plan reflected revisions to the original financial plan based on actual operating results to date and an updated analysis of underlying economic, revenue, and spending trends, as well as other actions and developments. The Division of the Budget routinely executes cash management actions to manage the State’s Financial Plan. This discussion includes comparisons to estimates from two different financial plan updates in 2017-18: the original financial plan (issued May 26, 2017) and the final financial plan (issued February 15, 2018), with emphasis on the original plan. General Fund receipts exceeded disbursements by $1.7 billion in 2017-18, primarily reflecting the acceleration by taxpayers of an estimated $1.9 billion in personal income tax payments in response to federal tax law changes. The General Fund ended the fiscal year with a closing cash fund balance of $9.4 billion, which consisted of approximately $1.8 billion in the State’s rainy day reserve funds ($1.3 billion in the Tax Stabilization Reserve Account and $540 million in the Rainy Day Reserve Fund), $46 million in the Community Projects Fund, $21 million in the Contingency Reserve Fund, and $7.6 billion in the Refund Reserve Account. Total General Fund receipts for the year (including transfers from other funds) were approximately $71.4 billion. Total General Fund disbursements for the year (including transfers to other funds) were approximately $69.7 billion. Net operating results were $3.1 billion more favorable than anticipated in the original financial plan, with the original plan projecting a net operating deficit of $1.4 billion. Total receipts and transfers from other funds were more than original financial plan estimates by $1.6 billion and total disbursements and transfers to other funds were less than original financial plan estimates by $1.5 billion. The primary factor contributing to higher-than-projected total receipts was $903 million in tax collections, including transfers from other funds after debt service. Personal income tax receipts exceeded initial projections by $1.6 billion due to the acceleration by taxpayers of an estimated $1.9 billion in personal income tax payments, offset by an administrative decision to pay $500 million in additional refunds during the final quarter above the planned amount of $1.75 billion. Business tax receipts were $802 million below original projections due to corporation franchise tax, driven by lower than expected calendar year filings. Miscellaneous receipts were almost $1 billion higher than the original projections, mainly due to the receipt of extraordinary monetary settlements not included in the original plan. Lower-than-projected disbursements reflected lower-than-anticipated transfers to capital projects, due to the timing and availability of bond reimbursements and slower-than-expected transfers of monetary settlements from the General Fund to other funds, as well as underspending across a number of local assistance programs. Net operating results were $278 million more favorable than anticipated in the final financial plan. Total dis- bursements were lower than the final financial plan estimates by $299 million, driven by lower local assistance spending offset by higher-than-projected transfers to capital projects funds. In local assistance, disbursements for education, children and family services, and a range of other programs fell below planned levels. Capital projects transfers were affected by both the pace of capital projects spending and the use of bond proceeds to reimburse first-instance capital spending in other funds. The State’s current year General Fund GAAP surplus of $2.4 billion reported on page 36 differs from the General Fund’s cash basis operating surplus of $1.7 billion reported in the reconciliation found under Budgetary Basis Reporting on page 128. This variation results from differences in basis of accounting, entity and perspective differences between budgetary reporting versus those established as GAAP and followed in preparation of this financial statement. CAPITAL ASSET AND DEBT ADMINISTRATION Capital Assets As of 2018, the State has $106.2 billion invested in a broad range of capital assets, including equipment, buildings, construction in progress, land preparation, and infrastructure, which primarily includes roads and bridges (Table 4). This amount represents a net increase (including additions and deductions) of $1.3 billion over last year.