The amazing shrinking state budget
There’s a black cloud hanging over the state Capitol.
Financially speaking, that is.
State lawmakers slashed $1 billion from the state budget last October and are ready to vote out another $500 million cut this week. On Tuesday, they’ll learn just how much they have to cut from next year’s budget – and the preliminary estimate is gloomy.
Expect it to hit $2.5 billion - or maybe even 3.5 billion.
“It’s death by a thousand paper cuts,” described House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.
But Republican leaders look at the cuts as a way to adjust the state’s balance sheet.
Like all governments, the state got a big revenue boost from Florida’s runaway housing market the last couple of years. The state budget jumped from $63 billion in 2005 to more than $72 billion to start the 2007-2008 budget year last July.
“It’s ticking back to where it should have been,” Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, told the Tallahassee Bureau’s John Kennedy. “There’s been a windfall to the state – and we’ve spent it. Now we’re un-spending it.”
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Somebody tell our Local City and County Officials. They haven't a clue, and, continue to spend like drunken sailors. My apologies to drunken sailors worldwide.
Posted by: Tack Stout | March 10, 2008 3:50 PM
Dan VS. Dan
“It’s death by a thousand paper cuts,” described House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber
“There’s been a windfall to the state – and we’ve spent it. Now we’re un-spending it.” Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden
One's got it right, the other doesn't even GET IT.
And Gelber don't be so dramatic. If you got a problem with paper cuts put gloves on.
Posted by: BillB | March 11, 2008 7:32 AM