Maryland ends 2023 fiscal year with $555M budget surplus

BALTIMORE — The State of Maryland closed its last fiscal year with a $555 million budget surplus, Comptroller Brooke Lierman announced Monday. 

The state has a General Fund balance of $2.58 billion, and the General Assembly allocated $2.39 billion for operations in the 2024 fiscal year. 

Lierman said the end-of-fiscal-year report, known as the Closeout Report, reflects the challenges families and small businesses have faced. 

“The Closeout Report closely follows revenue forecasts made in March by the Board of Revenue Estimates, signaling that Maryland’s economy remains stable but is experiencing some challenges, including the effects of national inflation, with a disproportionate impact being felt by our families making low- to moderate-incomes,” Lierman said in a statement Monday.

The comptroller said within the next month her office will release a report on the state’s economy to help stakeholders “make the best possible decisions in a shifting economic environment.” 

The surplus reflects pre-pandemic balances, Lierman’s office said. In FY 2020 the state had a $585 million surplus, while in 2021 and 2022 the state had $2.5 billion and $2 billion surpluses, respectively, thanks to federal stimulus funding. 

Read the Closeout Report here.