Heading into the legislative session, lawmakers now know what they will be budgeting for when they plan for the upcoming fiscal year. State Representative Dustin Hite says there will be several potential ideas to spend a slight bump in revenue projections from previous numbers they left back in the spring and again in October. Hite says both the House and Senate will start the session with planning for K-12 education spending and their annual state supplemental aid increase, and then follow with other priorities.

“First and foremost, what I think on all of our minds up there is what can we do for schools, and supplemental aid, and I believe that we’ll hopefully get that worked out really quick so the school’s know what their budget is going to be,” he says. “But as far as having a whole extra pot of money to spend, I don’t necessarily know that that’s going to be a reality between hopefully giving a bump to schools, we are also going to be looking at an increase in Medicaid expenditures.”

Iowa’s revenue is expected to grow by 2.9% in fiscal year 2020, which is what legislators will be budgeting for starting in Janaury.

Hite says the continued revenue growth is a good sign, despite what has been a sluggish ag economy for several years. Hear more about the upcoming session from Representative Hite on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.