Florida’s revenue collections are headed even further south, according to state economists.

Their latest projections estimate Florida’s ad valorem tax collections will be down by $800 million this year, nearly a 12 percent decline.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget chief Jerry McDaniel said that the new numbers, released late yesterday evening, won’t have an impact on Crist’s proposed spending plan that includes $7,044 per student.

But, he told the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the decline may put lawmakers in a bind.

“You’ll not have the luxury of showing an increase in per student funding,” he said.

The decline may force lawmakers to raise the property tax millage rate to make up the gap. Crist opposes doing that.

Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, questioned McDaniel on the amount of money Crist put into his budget for class size, saying it wasn’t enough.

“You may end up with revenue that we haven’t proposed in this budget,” McDaniel said, referring to tax or fee increases.

Wise wasn’t satisfied.

He accused Crist of giving “false hope” to teachers by using stimulus money that will last only two years to pay for salaries that won’t go away.

“Three years from now, we’re going to be in a worse mess than we’re in now. That’s what kind of bothers most of us…it becomes almost insurmountable the position you’ve put us in,” said Wise, chairman of the Senate PreK-12 budget committee.

Tags: Charlie Crist, education

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