BS won't save Rick scoot form the nightmare the GOP has created in Florida
huddled privately with corporate executives throughout the state, the
Legislature's chief economist Tuesday delivered a sobering refresher to
state lawmakers on Florida's bleak revenue and jobs pictures.
State economists will set their formal taxing and spending expectations for
the coming year on Dec. 14. But the preliminary numbers indicate that the
budget shortfall could surpass $3 billion, up from previous estimates of $2.5 billion.
Add this to the $2 billion in tax cuts Scott pledged during his campaign.
Economist Amy Baker say the revenue hole may be deepening, thanks to lower-than-expected property values that will produce less tax revenue and sharply higher Medicaid costs.
Job growth is anemic, she said, and the housing market is still in the tank.
Florida's gross-domestic product was 45th in the country in 2009, after
ranking dead last in 2008. Florida's GDP had been fourth-best in the country in 2005.
A lot of Florida's problems started when the gas prices peaked at about $4.50 per gallon. Tourist stopped coming to Florida. The GOP also required Canadian tourists to bring their own medical insurance, which also stooped many Canadians form vacation in the state.
Personal income has been growing slowly since the second quarter of 2009,
but Florida still ranks only 37th. The state's October unemployment rate of
11.9 percent was the nation's fourth-worst, and population growth is nearly
flat.
Baker said economists had anticipated a roughly $1-billion budget shortfall
for Medicaid, the health-insurance program that covers roughly 3 million
poor families and seniors and that had been bolstered by dwindling federal
stimulus dollars.
But she said the state's share of the costs could grow by as much as $300 million to $400 million more . . .
In addition, state economists had expected property-tax revenues to grow
slightly in the 2011-12 budget year but now expect them to decline 1.21
percent, or roughly $150 million. Thus, lawmakers will have to find
that amount somewhere else if they hope to hold per-pupil K-12 spending at
the same level as this year. Note: A class size amendment is now in effect that will worsen the education shortfall.
Senate health-care budget chief said lawmakers were
going to have to cut Medicaid by up to $2 billion in state dollars. "That's
a fact," he said, urging lawmakers upset at the notion of such cuts to "tell
me what bill you've filed to raise taxes."
Scott campaigned on a pledge to cut $2 billion in taxes during his first year in office, by slashing corporate income taxes $600 million or more and
school property taxes by $1.4 billion.
We're going through our budget. My plan is to follow our seven-step plan," Scott said in Washington last week. Scott is spending this week on a "jobs tour" of the state, paid for with more than $100,000 from business interests and including closed-door meetings with business executives.
Rightardia knew that Scott's recovery plan would never work because the GOP has been cutting taxes for the past 12 years. Florida needs to increase its tax revenues, not reduce them.
Also, Florida has one of the lowest ratios of state workers to citizens in the US. thousands of teachers, police and fire fighters have been laid off. Scott will be hard pressed to find any savings by laying off more workers in the government work force.
The grifter -elect probably already knows he is between a rock and a hard place.
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