Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she will decide in September whether to call a special session of the Iowa Legislature to fix the state's budget troubles, although she declined to identify areas that could be targeted for spending cuts.

Lawmakers have already repeatedly scrambled to shore up the state's finances during the 2017 fiscal year, making $118 million in cuts to programs and services while transferring another $131 million from the state's emergency cash reserve funds. The 2017 budget year ended June 30, but the accounting books don't officially close until the end of September.

If the state's budget shortfall is $50 million or below, Reynolds has the authority under state law to transfer money from the cash reserve fund. But if the deficit exceeds $50 million, she would need to bring the entire Iowa Legislature back to Des Moines for a special session. This year's regular session adjourned in late April.

"We are monitoring revenue coming in. We are monitoring refunds ... We will be making decisions in the near future," Reynolds told reporters at her weekly news conference. Generally accepted accounting principles will be used in analyzing the status of the state's budget, she added.

Reynolds, a Republican, has already indicated she wants to avoid across-the-board spending cuts. That means additional budget reductions would need to be made selectively, probably through negotiations with the leaders of the GOP's legislative majority, which controls the House and Senate.

Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, the ranking Democrat on the tax-writing Senate Ways and Means Committee, said Tuesday she has also been closely monitoring state revenues and she believes a special session may be inevitable.

"Unless the numbers start picking up, the revenue just isn't where it needs to be right now," Jochum said.

However, Jeff Robinson, senior analyst for the Legislative Services Agency who closely monitors state revenue trends, said Tuesday there is still a possibility the state's revenue shortfall will be less than $50 million. He said he expects state officials will have a much better idea by mid-September to late September.

Reynolds said she's hoping a special session isn't needed, adding she doesn't want to speculate on possible budget cuts while a decision is pending on the matter. But Jochum said she wants lawmakers to avoid more budget cuts to kindergarten-through-12th grade programs, as well as further funding reductions to Iowa's three state universities.

Jochum said she worries that additional losses of state funding to the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa will result in tuition increases that will make college unaffordable to many Iowa families.

"This economy demands more educated citizens, and if we want democracy to flourish it demands an educated and informed citizenry," Jochum said.

Republicans have blamed much of the state revenue shortfall on a slump in Iowa's farm economy. A common complaint among some Democrats is that GOP elected officials have been far too generous in granting hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax breaks to businesses. But Republicans point out that many Democratic lawmakers have voted for those tax breaks over the last decade, including tax incentives for data centers in 2008, a property tax overhaul in 2013, and a manufacturers' sales tax exemption in 2016.