Statewide Iowa — (RI) — The three members of a state forecasting board agree state tax receipts will grow, but not by much in the next 18 months.
That’s Holly Lyons of the Legislative Services Agency, a member of the State Revenue Estimating Conference. The group predicts tax payments to the State of Iowa will remain steady, growing by about one-point-eight percent in the next state budgeting year. Legislators will use that estimate as the basis for building a spending plan for the state budget year that begins July 1st. Department of Management director Dave Roederer is another member of the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference.
Many state agencies have presented Governor Reynolds with “status quo” budget plans. Roederer suggests there won’t be a lot of extra money to spend next year.
Unlike the past two years, Roederer does NOT anticipate mid-year budget cuts in the remaining months of the current state fiscal year. State tax revenue is projected to grow nearly five percent in THIS budgeting year. David Underwood, a businessman from Clear Lake, is the third member of the state Revenue Estimating Conference. He says “headline fears” are causing people to “under appreciate” great corporate earnings reports.
Underwood and the other two members of the Revenue Estimating Conference all cited concern about the ag economy, particularly commodity prices that have slumped during recent trade disputes.
