(via Radio Iowa & KROS NEWS) – A top official in the Iowa Department of Revenue confirms some Iowa communities are getting early holiday gifts from the state in the form of much larger checks than expected from local option sales taxes-including in the Clinton area.
State chief economist Robin Anderson says it’ll be a boom to the budgets in quite a few towns and counties. “Some of the increase does have to do with changes to how we collect sales tax revenue for internet sales,” Anderson says.
Estimates are made by the state based on the first three quarters of the previous year, and changes to the economy and our buying habits during this year’s pandemic threw off those estimates. Some counties are now getting what are called “true up” checks in the mail from the state. “So, if there’s an overshoot or undershoot, we true up those numbers,” Anderson says. “That’s likely what happened with these cities and counties and other local entities that are getting extra paychecks from the state.”
Some communities were anticipating state checks of ten-thousand dollars, and they’re instead getting checks of between five and ten times that amount. “The initial data that we had shows flat growth and then growth comes in better than expected throughout the year,” Anderson says. “So really, we’re limited in the data that we have when we develop the forecast. Sometimes, we’re a little bit off and we have to reconcile those numbers.”
The pendulum swings both ways though, as she says some communities are getting less than they originally expected.
Clinton City Finance Director Anita Dalton reported the city received just over 681-thousan dollars in the payment. Dalton says that’s about 3*times the normal amount. The funds are used to offset property taxes.
Camanche City officials announced recently they received 100-thousand dollars in that payment compared to 10-12-thousand dollars on average.
Clinton County Treasurer Dustin Johnson reported about 147-thousand dollars in unexpected revenues in the payment.
