Revenue forecast improvement could give Pence's tax cut push momentum

Revenue forecasters will project that Indiana will take in between $200 million and $300 million more than they had expected in December, according to a source who has been briefed on the new numbers but spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Their projection means Indiana can work that money into its next two-year budget – a two-year, $30 billion document that lawmakers are working to finalize before this year’s legislative session wraps up at the end of next week.

Pence is lobbying for that budget to include a reduction in Indiana’s individual income tax rate from the current 3.4 percent to 3.06 percent. That move would save average taxpayers around $100 annually and would reduce Indiana’s tax collections by $520 million per year.

Administration officials said the new numbers mean lawmakers could approve the budget that Pence proposed, with the additional enhancements for education and transportation that House and Senate leaders favor, and still top the state’s surplus targets by $100 million.

The State Budget Committee, which includes House and Senate fiscal leaders and Pence’s state budget director, Chris Atkins, is currently meeting to hear new Medicaid spending projections and later will receive the new revenue forecast.