Lawmakers reacted with calm Wednesday to a new forecast that they could be facing a $3.5 billion budget hole in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
That prediction combines an anticipated tax revenue shortfall of $2.2 billion and the growing cost of meeting the state’s legal and constitutional obligations including prisons, courts and the state’s share of the Medicaid health care program for the needy.
State economists on Aug. 15 had predicted Florida would collect $1.8 billion less than previously anticipated during the current budget year.
House and Senate members of the Legislative Budget Commission received a presentation on the latest bad economic news from Amy Baker, the Legislature’s economic and demographic research coordinator
