Full rainy day fund pleases Barbour

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 4/30/8

Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law Tuesday legislation filling the state’s rainy day fund to its legal capacity of $378 million.

Barbour made the filling of the rainy day fund one of his key legislative priorities for the recently completed session. The legal capacity for the Working Cash Stabilization Fund is 7.5 percent of the general fund appropriation.

The fund was created in the early 1990s to be used during slowdowns in state revenue collections. Earlier this decade during the national recession, it was nearly depleted, to less than $25 million.

Barbour said through conservative spending the rainy day fund has been replenished.