State officials plan to use record revenues to help offset debt and fill reserves, pushing that abnormal and unsustainable levels of federal funding must be used wisely. The proposed General Fund budget is $2.718 billion, a 1.52 percent increase over last year, and the Education Trust Fund budget would be $8.3 billion, a $627 million increase. “Our current level of budget revenues are historical in nature, are generally unprecedented and we know they are not going to sustain at these levels,” Director of Finance Bill Poole said. “There have been a couple of themes to make sure the state is stewarding budgets responsibly, thinking about the future, investing funds rather than casually spending them … The federal funding will dry up at some point, and economic factors on the horizon that could have negative impacts on budgets in years to come.”
