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It is amazing how dense politicians can be with your money. The Florida State Governments is surprised that real estate tax reciepts are lower than last year. To put my intellectual hat on, all I can say is well duh…

Florida, your state was infected with flippers and speculators for the past 5 years driving property values up. Here in Atlanta I know 3 guys who bought and sold properties in your state they never saw. Did you not think there would be a downturn.

But government officials only see things one way. Up. Taxes – Up. Spending – Up. If any of these wise folks you put into office had a lick of sense they would have set aside some of the real estate taxes they recieved when things were white hot for this day. But not the politicians. And now they will find a way to raise more taxes on the population of Florida to cover up their ignorance.

Lawmakers will have an estimated $2.3-billion in additional revenue to work with in 2007-08; roughly $466-million less than economists had thought would be available.The change constitutes a fraction of the state’s overall budget, which totaled $73.9-billion this year.

The chief culprit is the nationwide real estate slump that has hit Florida even harder because of skyrocketing property insurance rates. That slowdown will put a dent in the taxes from called documentary stamps, on all real estate transactions.

State economists predicted Tuesday that Florida would collect just $920-million in documentary stamps in 2007-08, down from $1.24-billion in 2005-06. Nonetheless, the projection is still more optimistic than the $660.1-million in documentary stamp collections projected for the current year.

“We’ve been talking about this for several (meetings) now,” said Amy Baker, the chief analyst for the Legislature’s joint Office of Economic and Demographic Research. “It’s just more intense than we anticipated.”via the St. Petersburg Times.

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