Weekly Report- March 4, 2010
House File 2088, State Reorganization Bill, was passed by the Senate and a second time by the House to accept amendments by the Senate. The Bill has been sent to the Governor for his signature.
House File 2280, the “Puppy Bill” increases fees for an estimated additional income of $335,000 annually to the General Fund. It will also require four additional employees to enforce requirements included in the Bill. This Bill has passed the House and Senate and has been sent to the Governor for his signature.
Two FY 2010 supplemental appropriations bills have been introduced. Senate File 2151 does not increase General Fund spending but rearranges General Fund spending to comply with federal regulations regarding the stimulus funds. Senate File 2366 increases General Fund spending by appropriating $41 million to education, $8 million to justice systems and 4.4 million to health and human services. Adding the $52.1 million in net supplemental appropriations to the $5.235 billion, the $592 million in federal stimulus funds and $80.3 million from the Cash Reserve Fund, the FY 2010 will spend at least $5.959 billion for General Fund purposes. After the 10% across-the-board cut from the FY 2010 budget, it spends nearly as much as the FY 2009 budget, which spent $6.088 billion when the one-time stimulus funds are included.
The Legislative Services Agency released the Monthly General Fund Receipts through February 28, 2010. This includes a comparison of General Fund Receipts of FY 2010 to FY 2009. Contributions to the major sources reflected in FY 2010 include:
Personal income tax (negative $91.5 million, -4.4%)
Sales/use tax (negative $62.9 million, -3.9%)
Corporate tax (negative $35.9 million, -14.7)
Other taxes (negative $19.6 million, -10.0%)
Other receipts (negative $16.7 million, -6.2%)
Tax refunds not including school infrastructure refunds (negative $29.0 million)
School infrastructure sales/use tax refunds (negative $26.9 million)
For the month of December, Iowa nonfarm employment was reported at 1,480,900 (not seasonally adjusted), 40,400 (-2.7%) lower than December 2008. Iowa’s share of U.S. nonfarm employment has been expanding since January 2008, as the rate of economic decline nationally has exceeded the rate of decline in Iowa.
Please feel free to contact me regarding issues that are or will be before the Legislature. My e-mail address and phone numbers are in the above letterhead.
030410
