On Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity and state Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), chair of the House Republican Appropriations Committee called for the state to bring the state’s Rainy Day Fund up to the national median.
Garrity said the Treasury Department’s investment income for 2023 has increased to $437 million. Garrity and Grove said they feel the saving should be a key element to any upcoming budget negotiations. While Republicans want to shore up the Rainy Day Fund, both believe that saving should be a key element to upcoming budget negotiations, while Gov. Josh Shapiro and House Democrats have proposed a budget that spends down budgetary reserves and the Rainy Day Fund.
“Pennsylvania will soon face a fiscal cliff,” Garrity said. “We owe it to the hardworking taxpayers we serve every day to prepare by making prudent and fiscally responsible decisions – like saving more in our Rainy Day Fund. With leadership from Chairman Grove and others, big deposits were made into the Rainy Day Fund as part of the last two state budgets. Thanks to those wise decisions, which enjoyed strong bipartisan support, we have enough saved to keep the state running for about 42 days. That’s a huge improvement, but we’re still below the national median of 44.5 days. The good news is that we can get there this year.”
Prior to this fiscal year, Garrity said, the state was behind other states in terms of its Rainy Day Fund.
“It is not very often government can say it raised significant revenues without raising taxes, but this is exactly what the Rainy Day Fund and budget reserves have done this year,” Grove said. “House Republicans led the charge to make real investments in the Rainy Day Fund, and Treasurer Garrity’s leadership has resulted in a monumental return on investment. Treasurer Garrity and I share the goal of moving Pennsylvania from the middle of the pack to being a national leader in saving for an economic downturn. Economic indicators are flashing signs of another recession, we must prepare.”