The most recent state revenue projections provided some relief for legislators.

Iowa House District 47 Representative Phil Thompson of Jefferson says the Revenue Estimating Committee, which is a group of individuals that the state uses to make their best judgement on the amount of money the state is going to make or lose in a given year, reported in December a 3.7-percent revenue growth. Thompson points out that is $296 million more than the previous fiscal year. 

While Thompson is a bit surprised by that projection, he is not in a hurry in planning to spend those projected funds.

“My caucus is going to be conservative with that number. There’s still a lot of uncertainties. We’ve learned from decades of history not to just take the Revenue Estimating Committee’s number as just defined word. We’re going to be a little bit more conservative than that as we do our revenue projections. But we’re certainly in a good position.”

With those uncertainties, and still dealing with a global pandemic, Thompson notes they will budget lower than what the REC has reported. He adds that the March projections from the REC will be the numbers that they use when time comes to put the state’s budget together.