News & Public Affairs

Budget projections worsen in Florida

Listen to this entire show:

Tags: budget

Florida's revenue picture continues to worsen.

The St. Petersburg Times reported today that preliminary figures show January's tax collections will be at least $138-million below previous estimates, to put the cumulative shortfall for November, December and January at about $230-million.

State Sen. Charlie Justice says he hopes the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission will realize that Florida needs to diversify the way it collects revenue.

When the state Legislature returns to Ta...

Iorio meets with City Council on budget listen

Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Tampa, Pam Iorio, Mary Mulhern, John Dingfelder, Linda Saul-Sena, Tampa City Council, Amendment 1, taxes, budget

Today Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio briefed members of the City Council about budget concerns resulting from Amendment 1.

The property tax cut approved last month by Florida voters will greatly reduce revenues for local governments. In the meeting at City Hall, Iorio said the city projects collecting $4.1-million less in property tax in 2009. That would result in a $16.8-million difference between total revenues and total expenditures.

Iorio proposed making up $3.4 million of that deficit with ...