Des Moines, Iowa — A state panel is predicting tax payments being made to the State of Iowa will grow slightly more than they’d predicted three months ago.
The Revenue Estimating Conference cites the continuing increase in sales tax payments to the state, an indication of consumer confidence. Kraig Paulsen, the governor’s top budget advisor, is also director of the Iowa Department of Revenue.
Paulsen and the other two members of the Revenue Estimating Conference now predict total tax collections for the current state fiscal year will be 4.2 percent higher than the previous year. But revenues are projected to decrease after July 1st, due to the tax cuts Republicans recently enacted. David Underwood, a CPA from Clear Lake, says there have been two years of wage growth, but that seems to be leveling off in Iowa — and the war in Ukraine has injected uncertainty in the economy.
Holly Lyons is director of the fiscal services division in the Legislative Services Agency.
State tax collections over the past eight months are running nearly eight percent ahead of the same period in the previous fiscal year. The panel expects that pace to decline over the next few months, but far from negative territory. Republican lawmakers and Governor Reynolds say the group’s analysis shows there’s room for the tax cuts they approved last week.
