Officials expect state coffers to get $80 MIL more than expected

The state panel that tries to predict the amount of tax revenues that’ll come into the state’s coffers has upped its estimate for this fiscal year and the next. Dennis Prouty, director of the Legislative Services Agency, and one of the members of the Revenue Estimating Conference, says they’re upping the estimate for this year by an extra 80-million dollars and 85 million for the next year. He says for 2005 they were predicting two-point-seven percent growth and now are predicting four-point-one. For 2006 they’d predicted one-point-eight and have upped that to two percent — while incorporating in 100-million dollars in tax changes that’ll bring in less receipts. Prouty says improving economic conditions are part of the reason for the increase from their December estimates. He says they were hesitant in December because of the effect of “bonus depreciation” and changes in the tax tables by the Department of Revenue. He says since then they’ve found the economy in Iowa is doing better and the overall U-S economy is doing better than anticipated. Prouty says the board has a more positive outlook now. He says things look a little better than they did in December, so they’re a little more optimistic. The state’s fiscal year runs from July 1st through June 30th.