.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Boosted in part by a $1-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax, the state of Iowa’s revenues are up more than 10 percent year-to-date. The state’s current fiscal year began July 1, 2007.

The state’s 2008 fiscal year-to-date net receipts reached $2.93 billion on Jan. 1, a 10.2 percent increase from the first half of the previous fiscal year.

The growth is “much larger than usual,” said Jeff Robinson, a senior fiscal analyst with the Legislative Services Agency. “Normally, we average 4 to 5.5 percent growth in general fund revenue.”

An increase in the cigarette tax last year by the Legislature has so far generated an additional $71 million in tax revenue, a 161 percent increase from the amount collected in the first half of fiscal 2007. That increase represents about 25 percent of the total revenue growth, Robinson said. “So really, our actual growth is about 7.5 percent, which is really good,” he said.

The insurance premium tax was the only category of taxes to decrease during the first half of the fiscal year, due to the completion of a two-year phase-down of the tax rate from 2 percent to 1 percent. Premium tax receipts declined by nearly 13 percent, to $52.8 million.

Revenues from personal and corporate income taxes, which make up more than half of total receipts, were up 9.3 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. Receipts from personal income tax withholding, is up 6.9 percent year-to-date, “which is not incredibly big growth, but it’s good,” Robinson said. “When you’ve got 1 percent job growth and 4 percent wage growth, that’s about as good as Iowa gets.”