On December 12th, the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) held its December meeting. The three-member panel gathered to review Iowa’s economy, revise budget projection for FY 2020, and set the official estimate for FY 2021.
For the current fiscal year (FY2020), the REC raised the General Fund forecast to $8.0146 billion. This would be a 2% increase in state revenue over Fiscal Year 2019’s actual collections. The FY 2020 budget, passed in April, spends $7.6437 billion. Today’s forecast means the FY 2020 General Fund budget spends 95.37% of the available revenue for FY 2020.
For the next budget year (FY2021), the REC estimates that General Fund revenue will come in at $8.2490 billion. This would be $234.4 million higher than the current FY 2020 forecast, or a revenue increase of 2.9 percent.
Rep. Gary Mohr, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said:
“Iowa’s economy is clearly growing and that is a positive sign for the future. Iowa has a healthy surplus, full reserve accounts, and the tax cuts we passed in 2018 are just starting to positively impact families and small businesses. Iowans can count on House Republicans to continue our successful investments in priorities like education, health care and public safety in the 2020 session. We will continue to demonstrate strong budget leadership as we move forward…”
Bottom line: Iowa’s economy is growing.
The FY 2020 estimate has risen $166.2 million since March and the FY 2021 estimate has risen $199 million also since March. This is exciting news for Iowans and I look forward to digging into these numbers further during the legislative session.
