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Indiana has $353 million surplus after three months

Indiana can trigger an automatic taxpayer refund law in odd-numbered years, when its two-year budget cycle ends.
Indiana can trigger an automatic taxpayer refund law in odd-numbered years, when its two-year budget cycle ends.

Less than a quarter into the new fiscal year, Indiana has collected hundreds of millions more in taxes than expected.

Through August, Indiana collected $353 million more in revenue than the current budget needs. That’s ahead of where the state was a year ago, and it  finished the last fiscal year with $3 billion more than its budget plan.

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Indiana can trigger an automatic taxpayer refund law in odd-numbered years, when its two-year budget cycle ends. It did so  in 2021, sending back $125 per person to anyone who filed a tax return.

But triggering that law in 2023 will be more difficult. That’s because of a change lawmakers put into recent legislation,  SEA 2 (ss), during the special session. Next year, when closing the state’s financial books, the first $1 billion of excess reserves won’t be used for a taxpayer refund. Instead, it will go entirely to paying down debt in a teacher pension fund.

Any excess tax collections after that would go towards taxpayer refunds.

Contact reporter Brandon at  bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at  @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon J. Smith has previously worked as a reporter and anchor for KBIA Radio in Columbia, MO. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, IL as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.