Early reports show that Idaho tax revenues are several million dollars below expectations in June, the final month of the last fiscal year for state government.
Idaho Division of Financial Management Director Wayne Hammon told IdahoReporter.com that incomplete preliminary numbers show the shortfall is close to $6.7 million, a total that was circulated by legislative staff. Hammon said the final tax numbers should be available next week, along with the state’s plan to balance the budget for the fiscal year that ended on June 30.
“By sometime early next week or mid-next, we should have that finalized and out,” Hammon said.
The $6.7 million June shortfall and a preliminary report for the Idaho tax revenues was posted online by Wayne Davis, the executive director of the Idaho Association of School Administrators. If that total holds, Idaho revenues would be $17.2 million below the amount used by lawmakers to balance the state’s budget.
Hammon said that Gov. Butch Otter still plans to balance the previous budget without pulling money from the current budget. The state would empty the Budget Stabilization Fund, which had less than $1 million in June, according to Hammon, then take money from the Permanent Building Fund. The building fund normally pays for constructing and maintaining state buildings.
Lawmakers gave the governor the power to draw from those funds, and the State Board of Examiners, which Otter sits on, approved the plan last month. At that time, the shortfall was expected to be $7.5 million, so the June shortfall would mean more money coming out of the Permanent Building Fund.
