Florida’s Finances Okay, For Now
February 17th, 2009 by flanewsFlorida’s Chief Financial Officer says the state’s checking account is still in the black, for now. California and Kansas are having problems paying state employees.
Kansas is too broke to write tax rebate checks. Florida has more than 13 billion dollars, but most of the money is tied up in investments. Lawmakers will be asked to balance the budget again in March. CFO Alex Sink says by then the deficit projection could reach half a billion dollars.
“They’ve got to plan ahead and stop in their tracks and figure out where to get the other half a billion dollars if that’s what it’s calling for, or otherwise we could get in that situation, like Kansas and California, where I’m the state treasurer and if I don’t have the money in the checking account, I can’t write the check,” said Sink.
Not only will lawmakers continue to work on this year’s budget; next year’s budget could be five billion dollars short.
Posted in Economy, State Budget, State News | No Comments »