About Budget Data and Statements

General Fund Balance Sheet Summaries: One-page displays of general fund revenues, expenditures, beginning and ending balances and reserves. These one-page summaries are usually presented on a biennial basis with comparisons to historical, enacted or projected budget data.

General Fund Balance Analysis Documents: The spreadsheets provide information on actual and enacted general fund revenues, spending, reserves, and fund balances. Information on revenues is provided by the type of tax or other major revenue source. Information on spending is displayed by omnibus appropriation bill and state agency. Minnesota Management & Budget prepares updated fund balance analysis documents at the time of the financial forecasts in February and November, with the Governor's budget recommendations, and at the end of legislative sessions.

Consolidated Fund Statement: Provides information on actual and estimated revenues and spending for all budgetary funds. Budgetary funds include the general fund, special revenue funds, permanent trust fund and the debt service fund. Data is provided for each fund displaying revenue sources and expenditures by agency.

Where General Fund Dollars Come From; Where General Fund Dollars Go: Pie charts display state general fund revenues by type of major tax or other revenue source, and expenditures by major program area, in dollars and percentages of total.

The Price of Government: Provides information on state and local government revenues from 1990 to current. It also shows total state and local revenues as a percentage of total Minnesota personal income. It reflects how much of each dollar earned goes for state and local government. The information is updated after the February and November forecasts, with the Governor's recommended budget, and following each legislative session.

General Fund and All Funds Historical Spending: This table displays state general fund and all funds spending since 1960, with annual and biennial percentage change information.

Budgetary fund statements do not represent the state's official financial report but rather are prepared as a supplement to budget and forecast documents. These statements are designed to summarize and display comparative budget data for budget decision making.

Budgetary Basis Defined

Actual revenue, expenditure, transfer and fund balance information in these statements may differ from those in the state's generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP) based Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. This occurs primarily because of differences in the recognition of accruals, reimbursements, deferred revenue, intra-fund transactions and the budgetary basis of accounting for encumbrances. In the modified accrual basis used in the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, expenditures are recognized when goods or services are received regardless of the year encumbered. In budgetary fund statements, encumbrances are recognized as expenditures in the year encumbered.

Explaining differences between the basis of accounting used in the budget document and the basis of accounting used in the GAAP financial statements helps stakeholders better understand and interpret the numbers presented in both documents. Some of the more common differences between GAAP and the budgetary basis of accounting are:

• The timing of revenue and expenditures may be different under the GAAP basis of accounting than under the budgetary basis. For example, in GAAP accounting revenues are recognized as soon as they are both measurable and available whereas revenue recognition under the budgetary basis of accounting may be deferred until amounts are actually received in cash.
• Encumbered amounts are commonly treated as expenditures under the budgetary basis of accounting while encumbrances are never classified as expenditures under the GAAP basis of accounting.
• There may be differences between the fiscal year used for financial reporting and the budget period (e.g., the use of lapse periods in connection with encumbrances, project length budgets, grant budgets tied to the grantor's fiscal year).
• The fund structure used in GAAP financial statements may differ from the fund structure used for budgetary purposes. Budget statements may not include all of the component units and funds incorporated into the GAAP financial statements.