A state government spending watch group says just because Florida has a budget surplus doesn’t mean there won’t be budget cuts. That means it could become very difficult for either gubernatorial candidate to get his state spending priorities funded during the upcoming year.
Florida has a project budget surplus of $336 million. Those are the dollars left over after the state meets all its current spending obligations in the next fiscal year and tucks away about a billion dollars in reserves. Popular campaign promises from gubernatorial and legislative candidates include boosting dollars for education and Florida Tax Watch’s Kurt Wenner says, that’s doable: to an extent.
“It can be done, but if they want to do cuts and historic education funding there will have to be something in the budget that was funded last year that’s not going to be funded again.”
Wenner says things could get a lot trickier if promises of tax cuts come into play. That would take away some of the funding sources and will mean other areas of the budget could get downsized to make room for the spending priorities.
