The latest grim news about the state’s emaciated economy is making it harder to get the federal stimulus money aimed at boosting Florida’s finances on the streets.

State transportation officials are taking longer to get their list of $1.3 billion worth of road projects to lawmakers to sign off on so the projects can get moving because economists predicted Friday that revenues would drop by another $3.4 billion by the end of next year.

That means a (coincidentally) $1.3 billion cut to the state’s five-year road plan. Transportation officials are now trying to figure out what that impact would be on the stimulus-backed projects.

Lawmakers had hoped to pass a budget bill to spend the federal money as early as this week, but chances of that happening now are unlikely.

Tags: Charlie Crist, state agencies, state budget, State House, stimulus, unemployment

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 11:06 am and is filed under Charlie Crist, legislature, state budget, State House, State Senate, stimulus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.