The Revenue Estimating Conference met last week to give Iowa lawmakers its final projection of the state’s revenues for the next fiscal year.

District 47 Representative Phil Thompson says the REC projected 3.8-percent revenue growth, with $120 million in additional funds. Thompson tells Raccoon Valley Radio that was slightly higher than December’s projection of 3.7-percent. He points out that because the 3.7-percent is the lower estimate, the legislature is bound to use those numbers to put together the state’s budget for the next fiscal year. 

Thompson talks about the anticipated $2.5 billion from the federal government’s recent COVID-19 relief package being the one unknown that they will need to implement into the budget.

“So we see this as one time money and that’s a lot of money to plug into the budget. So we’re going to be trying to find good places to stick that: infrastructure for sure, broadband we see as a great place to put that money, as the governor came out with a really aggressive ask for broadband. So we’re hoping to plug that money into those places and prevent us from really ballooning our budget up with more full time employees and ongoing expenses.”

Thompson doesn’t anticipate changing any of the preliminary budget targets from what was previously discussed heading into the start of the legislative session.