By James Call
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-988652.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – A sluggish economy burns less gasoline and that means fewer gas tax dollars for
road building projects. James Call reports state economists have taken a billion
dollars out of Florida's five-year transportation plan.
A group of economists from the governor's office, the legislature and department of revenue Monday poured over the revenue stream that makes up the transportation trust fund. They noted in the current year tax and fee collections are off more than 2 percent or more than a 100 million dollars. The state's
chief economist Amy Baker expects the gap between estimates and actual collections to continue to grow.
Roughly, until we run the numbers we won't have final numbers but its going to be a billion dollars that we took out of that five year work period.
Baker says It is unclear as to why the numbers are off. Are people spending less on gasoline because of high prices? Or are people spending less because they are concerned about the economy. Baker noted a third factor, improved fuel efficiency in vehicles cuts the demand for gasoline and the amount collected in gas tax.