Jim Rosica
State economists began crunching the numbers Monday morning as they work up how much money the state will have to craft the next yearly budget.
The Revenue Estimating Conference, made up of Governor’s Office and legislative forecasters, met to suss out income for the General Revenue Fund.
Their prognosis is only 0.2 percent off the previous estimate, the closest in five years, buoyed largely by overage in certain collections, like corporate taxes.
As reported last week, so far there is $32.46 billion available for the next session, or more than $2 billion appropriated this fiscal year.
Part of that amount is because of a large BP settlement payment from oil damage to the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters also said the amount of money paid to the state from dog and horse tracks who run card rooms was “higher than anticipated.”
The conference is expected to release their updated paperwork later today on the Office of Economic & Demographic Research’s website at http://edr.state.fl.us/Content/.
