The west side of the State Capitol.
A state panel has decided to lower its prediction of total state tax collections for the year by nearly $50 million.
“We know that if corn, soybeans, pork, beef and poultry for the most part are producing at a loss, not a profit, it has an impact on manufacturing as well,” says Iowa Department of Management director Dave Roederer, a member of the Revenue Estimating Conference. “Our manufacturing sector of the economy, much of that is tied in with the agricultural sector.”
The state’s 2017 budgeting year began July 1, 2016. In March, Roederer and two other financial experts met in March and set an estimate for total state tax revenue, but the group met again today and recalculated.
“The economy is still going in a positive direction, but not at a rate that we had projected,” Roederer says.
Any trimming of the state spending plan can be done in January, when legislators return to Des Moines, according to Roederer. That’s that halfway point in the state budgeting year.
“Our economy really is going o.k.,” Roederer says. “It’s just not growing at a rate that many of us would like.”
The last state budgeting year ended June 30, 2016. The State of Iowa collected more than $8 billion taxes, but that was slightly lower than projections.