Missouri is starting its new fiscal year with its lowest amount of operating money in decades.
Figures from the state Office of Administration show Missouri ended its 2016 fiscal year June 30 with a cash balance of about $153 million.
That's the lowest amount since a $149 million balance at the end of the 1991 fiscal year, when annual state revenues were less than half of what they are today.
The 2016 year-end balance comprised just 1.7 percent of the state's net general revenues — the lowest percentage in Associated Press records dating back to 1975.
State Budget Director Dan Haug said Tuesday that the cash balance was historically low because revenues turned unexpectedly downward near the end of the fiscal year, after most spending had already occurred.
