Fund financial statements provide a short-term view of finances. As such, these statements only focus on the inflows and outflows of current financial resources—cash or liquid assets that are available to pay current obligations (or will be soon).

Funds represent sources of funding and spending for particular purposes.

• The General Fund is used to report sources of funds and expenditures that are not required to be accounted for in another separate fund.
• In New York State, significant sources of funds that normally would be reported in the General Fund have been pledged or dedicated to other funds for repayment of debt or project funding and are therefore reported in other governmental funds.

The accumulated fund balance is the amount of funds available at the end of the fiscal year. The operating result is the amount the fund balance increased or decreased during the year.

General Fund Balance (GAAP Basis) Decreases From Prior Year

• At the end of State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2018-19, the General Fund balance was $3.4 billion, a $1.3 billion decrease from the previous year’s balance of $4.7 billion.
• For SFY 2018-19, governmental funds* reported a combined operating surplus of $97 million, increasing the fund balance to $13.9 billion.
• The operating surplus included a $1.3 billion deficit in the General Fund.

For more detail, please see the Governmental Funds Statement of Revenues, Expenditures and Changes in Fund Balances in the Annual Report.

* The State’s governmental funds include the General Fund, the Federal Special Revenue Fund, the General Debt Service Fund and all nonmajor governmental funds.