With lawmakers preparing to craft a new state budget, economists estimated Friday that Florida will collect nearly $4 billion more in general-revenue taxes than had been expected over two years.
The increased estimates come after federal stimulus money has helped fuel consumer spending and as the state’s economy has bounced back during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the economists warned of a slowing that could occur because of the end of stimulus money and anticipated interest-rate hikes that will affect the housing market.
Nevertheless, the new estimates were good news for lawmakers, who will negotiate a budget in the coming weeks for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, which will start July 1. Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, issued a statement Friday that alluded to priorities he outlined during the Jan. 11 opening of the legislative session, such as raising wages for low-paid state workers.
“With additional revenues coming in and a substantial amount of reserves, our state remains in a lot better shape than we ever thought possible,” Simpson said. “We still have some challenges ahead — as I mentioned during my opening day comments — (and) raising the minimum wage for both state workers and those who contract to perform critical services is going to put a lot of recurring pressure on nearly every area of our budget, particularly in the health care and education silos.”
General revenue, which is made up of such things as sales taxes, corporate-income taxes and documentary-stamp taxes, plays a critical role in funding education, health care and prisons. A panel of economists, known as the Revenue Estimating Conference, meets periodically to update estimates, which are then used by lawmakers in making budget decisions.
The revised numbers Friday showed the state collecting about $3.29 billion more in general revenue this fiscal year than had been estimated in an August forecast. The numbers also indicated the state would collect $704.3 million more during the 2022-2023 fiscal year than previously expected.
