Is the FL State Budget headed for trouble?

[frankfromfla]

I enjoy reading the post and wisdom from many of you on various subjects. Both the Bulls and the Bears... Both the Owners and the Want to be Owners.

I had a general question that I thought I would post here to see what you guys think.

Seeing FL does not have a State Income tax and the Taxes are earned from various other sources do we have a major shortfall on the Horizon?

I understand a lot of the revenue in the past has come from Doc Stamps on sales of real estate and also from Doc stamp from the mortgage, it seems with the dramatic real estate slow down the funds to the state have dried up substantially. I know in general states never seem to have enough money, but this seems to be a real big reduction in income and the budget and expenses are the same that they were. Sales tax on home renovation items is reduced as well, however the Doc stamps numbers are substantially higher.

I certainly don't want any new taxes but concerned if we are headed for a brick wall.

Any comments?

 

[Bob]

yes, major pain ahead. Education will take it in the shorts, even after promises to the contrary.

 

[Mango]

Here's an interesting Study with recommendations from the LeRoy Institute. There's also another study on the web page link called
"Shaping Florida's Future"

Contents

1 Letter from the Chairman

3 Revenue: A great run of growth about to level.

1980-2000 -- Twenty years of keeping pace.
2000-2005 -- Rescued by the real-estate boom.
2005-2010 -- Predictable slowdown.

11 Services: The big two and big trouble ahead.

PreK-12 Education - Compounding growth, the bottom less pit of class-size compliance.
Medicaid - An 800-pound gorilla with a mind of its own.

19 Infrastructure: Huge deficits, the coming crunch, a down payment.

23 Other services A bottom-level effort puts higher education and children's services at risk.

27 Demographic Factors: Immigrants, retirees, job structure and voter attitudes.

31 Recommendations
1) An official study commission
2) A comprehensive Medicaid study
3) Modify the class-size amendment
4) Policy adjustments, savings and innovation
5) Tax and revenue adjustments
6) No added tax breaks for retirees
Downloads

Tough Choices: Facing Florida's Revenue Shortfall (1.61 MB)

"Adobe Acrobat PDF format"

​

 

[Rambunkscious]

Giving the property owners another 25,000 exemption is insignificant, this amounts to about 500 dollars relief. This will not solve our very huge problem.
Florida is about to fall off a cliff and its our politicians fault.

Also absolutely no relief on insurance. I dont know why anybody would want to buy property in the state of Florida considering these huge problems.
(And apparently nobody does but everybody sure wants to SELL property here)

 

[Bob]

what's the alternative????

 

[Rambunkscious]

The alternative is that the legislature would give the taxpayers some relief, as previously planned somewhere around 200,000 (not exact amount) exemption,
which would put our taxes in line with other states.

On insurance the alternative is for the state to take over the whole thing and lower premiums.

The real alternative that you now have is seeing u-haul trailers going north and school enrollment shrinking and hundreds of thousands homes listed and unsold and eventually foreclosed.

 

[scooterbug44]

I heard a rumor that if we don't have a major storm in 2007, the insurance companies cannot continue to justify their premiums and they will be lower (not low, but lower).

 

[SHELLY]

Frank,

It isn't heading for trouble....it's already there.

.

 

[jlweathers]

Giving the property owners another 25,000 exemption is insignificant, this amounts to about 500 dollars relief. here)

if i am not mistaken the additional 25k exemption is guaranteed as of yesterday. however, a much larger proposal will be on the ballot jan. 29th.

 

[Rambunkscious]

Dude, I hope you are right but I think that proposal was cancelled by a
judge. Nope its 25 thousand and thats it except for some 10% cap per year that is transferrable to another property if you move.

Our politicians and governor has really disappointed us.

If you find more info on what you suggested in your post I would surely like to read it, I hope I'm wrong here.