North Dakota government's rainy-day fund, bolstered by strong income and corporate tax collections, has reached its maximum balance of almost $100 million, the budget director said.

The surplus should cushion what the state's economic forecaster believes will be some significant revenue losses from Hurricane Katrina, said Pam Sharp, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

When lawmakers finished writing the state's 2005-07 budget plan last spring, they left $64.5 million in the "budget stabilization fund," as it is formally known. With interest, the balance was expected to grow to $67.2 million by June 2007.

In a report Wednesday to the Legislature's interim Budget Section, Sharp said the fund had $99.47 million when the state's previous two-year budget cycle ended July 1. The Budget Section includes Democratic and Republican legislative leaders, and members of the state House and Senate's budget-writing committees.

State law limits the rainy-day fund to 5 percent of North Dakota's general-fund budget over two years. In the current spending plan, general fund money accounts for almost $2 billion of $5.75 billion in total spending.

North Dakota's general fund is financed mostly by taxes on sales, income, corporations, energy, gambling and tobacco. The total spending figure includes federal money and an assortment of revenue sources that aren't part of the general fund, such as hunting license fees and taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel.

Economy.com, a West Chester, Pa., consultancy that helps state officials predict tax collections, is expecting "a substantial economic impact" from the hurricane, Sharp said.

The budget director participated in a conference call Wednesday with Economy.com analysts. She did not give any estimates of revenue losses, and said the situation is expected to right itself within a year.

"It should not derail the economic expansion that we've been experiencing lately," Sharp said.

Sen. Aaron Krauter, D-Regent, asked whether state officials were planning any ways to rebate some of the surplus to taxpayers, especially given a recent spike in gasoline prices. Many North Dakota stations were charging about $3 a gallon on Wednesday.

"Have you had discussions, or talked about any type of opportunity to roll back the gas tax … for residents of North Dakota, based upon all this revenue that's coming into the state?" Krauter asked. Sharp said she knew of no such discussions.