Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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others asked to be able to average prior years. Commenters stated that, for various reasons, revenue was artificially low in the last full fiscal year prior to the public health emergency, and, therefore, using revenue in that year as the base year did not accurately reflect expected revenue in a normal year. For example, several Tribes stated that unforeseeable weather events resulted in forced closure of casinos which, in turn, artificially deflated revenues in the base year. Other commenters indicated that one-time anomalies in the timing of tax collection in that year artificially pushed revenue into the following fiscal year. Similarly, a few commenters noted that tax changes that took effect in the middle of the base year may artificially skew the size of the revenue loss experienced by the recipient government. Treasury Response: Treasury understands that recipients may have experienced events in the base year that led to lower or higher revenues than what they otherwise would have collected. The ARPA provides that revenue loss is to be determined with respect to revenue in the most recent full fiscal year prior to the pandemic, and therefore the final rule maintains its incorporation of the statutory definition. In calculating revenue loss, recipients may use data on a cash, accrual, or modified accrual basis, provided that recipients are consistent in their choice of methodology throughout the covered period, which might help recipients adjust to certain delays in revenue receipt. Both the standard allowance and elements of the formula (e.g., counterfactual growth rate) incorporate generous assumptions to give recipients flexibility and to account for variation among recipients' experiences during the pandemic. 258