Mississippians can expect to hear plenty of bragging about the next few months about the healthy condition of the state’s “rainy day fund.”

The fund provides a financial cushion for state government, and it will hit a record high of $380 million when the new budget year starts July 1 — a level that makes it full, under state law.

Gov. Haley Barbour made the rainy day fund a priority as lawmakers wrote a budget during their recent session.

Barbour also has made clear that he wants to cut taxes before his second term ends in January 2012. Filling the rainy day fund plays right into the Republican governor’s hand because he points to it as an example of smart budgeting.

“It gives the state more flexibility and opportunity going forward because we’ve set aside this one-time money,” Barbour said at the end of the legislative session.

The governor is also boasting — as recently as this past week at a Mississippi Economic Council meeting — that “for the first time ever, the rainy day fund is filled to the amount called for by law.”

The problem is, that’s not true.

Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, says the fund was full during the three fiscal years that ended on June 30, 1998, 1999 and 2000. His source is the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Office. The state treasurer’s office has similar figures for the fund on those days, according to an independent check by The Associated Press.

The national economy slowed down early this decade. Mississippi, like many other states, was left with tough decisions about whether to reduce state services or to dip into rainy day funds.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, is a former chairman of the Finance Committee and is widely acknowledged for his understanding of the budget. Bryan said the rainy day fund served its purpose because the state used it to alleviate budget problems a few years ago.

“The good Lord told us to save up during the fat years because the lean years were coming,” Bryan said. “The good Lord did not intend for us to sit there in the lean years with the cattle starving to death bragging about how much hay we had in the barn.”

Some lawmakers say Barbour is making too big a deal out of the rainy day fund when some other fiscal precautions were ignored this session. Only 98 percent of projected revenues are supposed to be used when writing a budget, but Barbour and lawmakers agreed to use 100 percent of projected revenues.

Violating the “98 percent rule” has been common in recent years. With a healthy economy, it’s usually not risky to base a budget on 100 percent of projected revenues. But in tighter times, the state could fall millions of dollars short of expectations.

The rainy day fund and the “98 percent rule” were established during the early 1990s.

The rainy day fund is full when it’s at 7.5 percent of the previous year’s general fund revenues. The general fund is the largest state portion of the budget — federal money is counted separately — and it covers services such as public schools, prisons and mental health.