The state budget is officially even worse today. The three-member panel of financial experts who set the official estimate of state tax revenue met this morning. Their decision will force legislators and the Governor to cut almost 121-million dollars from this year’s state budget. Iowans aren’t spending, so state sales tax receipts are the lowest since 1985. Business profits are meager and the state’s corporate income tax take is the lowest ever. Paychecks aren’t growing, so the state’s personal income-tax collections are the lowest in 34 years. David Underwood of Mason City, a member of the Revenue Estimating Conference, says reality has hit.Iowa Department of Management director Cynthia Eisenhauer, another member of the Revenue Estimating panel, says reduced consumer confidence is one of the factors driving down state tax receipts.Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows says G-O-P lawmakers will meet in private and release their plan for dealing with the budget shortfall on Monday. He says the good news is they got the number, the bad news is they don’t like the number.House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says this is the day they dreaded.Rants says their priorities remain the same: they’ll protect education as much as possible, and will not raise any taxes. Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack has suggested dipping into the state’s economic emergency fund to cover the shortfall, and he’s impatient with Republicans. Vilsack says they don’t need excuses, they need a real effort to work together.
