Rainy Day Fund

Why it Matters: A healthy rainy day savings account gives citizens and businesses confidence that the state has planned for unseen changes. The state's Rainy Day Fund (also known as the Budget Stabilization Fund) is designed to help the state weather challenging economic periods or unforeseen emergencies. During good economic times, money is put into the fund and, during bad times, money is withdrawn to fund government expenditures. The Rainy Day Fund peaked at $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2000, but was quickly depleted. Michigan has started to rebuild the fund balance in fiscal year 2012 and projects that the balance will be over $500 million by the end of fiscal year 2013.