Florida budget may be a billion short

Source: Miami Herald

The state is not taking in enough money to keep its $71 billion budget balanced, and state agencies may soon be asked to trim spending.


<snip>

"Florida's economy is sputtering so badly that Gov. Charlie Crist and the GOP-controlled Legislature may be forced to order cuts in the more than $71 billion state budget that lawmakers passed less than two months ago.

Since March, the state has taken in millions less in sales taxes than it anticipated, and there's no sign that the trend will change anytime soon. Barring an economic turnaround, the shortfall could be as much as $1.2 billion for the current fiscal year and the one that begins Sunday, according to state budget analysts."

<snip>

"Florida lawmakers passed a $71.9 billion state budget this spring that actually cut the amount of spending from the previous year. Crist then vetoed more than $400 million in the budget when he signed it into law in May.

Legislators trimmed spending in the wake of forecasts that showed the state would actually collect less money from taxes this year than it had the previous year -- a downturn that had not happened in more than 30 years. Florida's main source of money is a 6 percent sales tax charged on most items, except food and medicine.

But the dour predictions made just three months ago by economists were too optimistic, signaling that the doldrums that have engulfed Florida may be worse than expected. State reports show that the state collected nearly $300 million less than expected for the months of March, April and May."





Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/153744.html

That's all a GOP legislature will do for ya'.

Followed by nearly the stupidest electorate on the planet.

I'm going to post a huge rant on that later today.

They are huge block of conservative, don't give a damn about the state or education (their children are grown), and religious voters. Oh, do they vote too. Try and pass a law requiring driving tests for anyone over 80. No way, political suicide.

Half of the state are transients from other states. It's one mixed up glimpse into the future for the rest of the country.

WELCOME TO ......

PENINSULA SHOWDOWN!!!

The show where two of the stupidest GOP state governments go head to head: at stake, THE MORAN TROPHY!

The GOP up here could give "dumb" lessons to Bush.

My sister happens to be one of them!

JEB and his rubber stampers ran Florida exactly the way his big brudder ran the federal government, and ran the state into the ground.

Huge tax cuts for the rich, awarding millions of education contracts as no-bidders to his cronies, payola, graft, greed, and even his wife's smuggling of jewelry through customs clearly indicate that wherever money is to be stolen, there you will find a Bush.

useless state first lady or what? I lived in Florida then, heck I moved to FL when Claude Kirk was gov, what WAS I thinking?? Well, now I live in TX which is...oh, never mind. Sounds like someone sneaking out the back door of the mansion with a Uhaul full of $$$. Maybe they used that Uhaul that carried the ballots that didn't get counted.

to Florida. Even with the costs of renting the truck, gas, and storage, it is still less than trying to buy a household's worth of furniture.

They probably lost a lot of sales tax dollars just on me.