The 2018 Iowa Legislative Session will begin on Monday and one of the priorities that must be handled first is the state’s overall budget shortfall.

The Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) predicts the state’s tax revenues for the following fiscal year. Legislators are then required to set the state’s budget according to the most recent predictions, during the legislative session. The most recent report in December showed a shortfall of revenues of about $90 million. District 47 State Representative Chip Baltimore says for four consecutive years, the REC’s projections were too high and they’ve had to continually figure out how to make up the difference in funding. He talks about they dealt with this issue last year.

“We had to deappropriate some funds in the middle of the year and that’s very challenging to do. I don’t get the sense that we’re going to have to do that this year. Obviously we’re looking at the revenues as they come in every single month. They are soft, but I don’t think they’re soft enough at this point that we’re going to have to come in the middle of the year and make a correction.”

District 24 State Senator Jerry Behn describes a possible solution to prevent even further budget cuts to the current fiscal year.

“Our concern is if that $90 million is not enough, should we take more than that off of the table now in order to make it so that we can function for the rest of the year. The reality is, we have to balance our budget, we have to make it work.”

The final REC projections for the current fiscal year, are due to come out in March.