Happy New Fiscal Year to 46 States

Today marks the first day of Fiscal Year 2010 for most states.

There are four states that will begin fiscal year 2010 at some other point, including:

New York (April 1st), technically called fiscal year 2009-2010
Texas (Sept. 1st), if anybody knows why they chose a month that is not even the end of a quarter, send us a note as we’re curious
Michigan (Oct. 1st), same as federal government
Alabama (Oct. 1st), same as federal government

The federal government’s fiscal year 2010 will begin on October 1st with a projected deficit of about $1.4 trillion. Like the federal government, most states are probably saying good riddance to F.Y. 2009, but will F.Y. 2010 be any better?

Note: The federal government’s fiscal year used to begin on July 1 each year, but was changed in 1976 to allow Congress more time to enact a budget. Yeah…that worked well.