Indianapolis – Indiana government's month-end General and Property Tax Replacement Fund Surplus balance (“Surplus Balance”) was $117,713,972 on May 31, 2005, marking the first non-fiscal year-end positive Surplus Balance since September 2001.

“Before today, with the exception of each fiscal year-end, we ended forty consecutive months with the Surplus Balance at a deficit,” remarked Auditor of State Connie Nass. “Given that this fiscal year was a creature of the 113 th General Assembly's unbalanced budget, this is very good news. But it is only a very small step on Indiana 's road to a fiscal comeback.”

The state ends every fiscal year with a Surplus Balance above zero, although for the past three fiscal years the number has been inflated primarily through the use of delayed payments to local governments and schools. Absent those payment delays and a $50 million loan in the 2004 fiscal year, the 2004 Surplus balance of over $500 million would have been a deficit of $257 million. Payment delays inflated the 2003 Surplus Balance from $28 million to $690 million, and the 2002 Surplus Balance from $150 million to $522 million.

Under the current budget, payment delays are again scheduled for the end of the 2005 fiscal year on June 30, 2005. The budget passed by the 114 th General Assembly in April takes effect July 1, 2005.

Monthly Surplus reports, Revenue reports, and Auditor Nass' biannual Report to Indiana Citizens on the State's Finances are available online on Auditor Nass' office website through the publications link at www.in.gov/auditor .