Florida’s overall earnings could fall $3.4 billion in forecasts for this fiscal year and $2 billion from estimates next year, state economists said.
Florida can also see a 10% increase in Medicaid enrollment, and another 4.36 million people are expected to enroll in the program until December 31, favoring a potential budget deficit of $553.7 million, economists say.
Florida, however, has $4 billion in reserves, has $5.8 billion in the federal budget under the CARES (Aid, Relief, and Economic Security for Coronavirus) act, and can cause dramatic budget disruptions if the U.S. Treasury Department authorizes states to use COVID-19 aid for pandemic spending.
It is very likely that this determination will not be clear until Senate Republicans and House Democrats reach an agreement on the COVID-19 aid circular.
“There is a very high degree of uncertainty about the long-term legal uses of these dollars through state and local governments,” state economists wrote in the monetary perspective of the General Income Fund, followed Friday by the Updated Income Estimation Conference (REC). Tuesday.
Without Treasury easing, “the final balance for fiscal year 2020-2021 will be lower, negative,” according to the outlook.
If part of the $5.8 billion of care was used to fill the budget gaps, the $92.2 billion state budget that took effect on July 1 may require significant changes.
DeSantis said last week that Florida’s CARES law is “mandatory” but not spent. He didn’t give any more details. In addition to the $4 billion in reserves, DeSantis ordered state agencies to submit plans to cut their budgets by 8.5%.
“I think we’ll move on to this budget year without a special session,” DeSantis said. “In fact, we will arrive at the end of the calfinishar year without having to perform a) special session. But that will define in a component about the overall fitness of the national economy.”
Unsurprisingly, profit losses are basically due to minimizing sales tax collection. Of the overall projected profit losses, more than $2.5 billion was obtained from a 6.1% minimum in sales tax collection.
Florida is based on sales tax profits, i.e. those generated through tourism, which account for approximately $7 billion of the $30.4 billion in sales tax earnings estimated by state economists in January.
According to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency, the state’s tourism experienced an estimated 60.5% drop in activity at the time of the 2020 quarter, from April to June, with 20 million fewer visitors.
The state unemployment rate is 10.4% through June, with more than one million florids out of work. As a result, Florida has paid $2.9 billion in unemployment benefits since mid-March, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
The more unemployed people, the more people lose their fitness insurance and enroll in Medicaid. The $30 billion Medicaid spending plan in the budget was founded on 3.8 million enrollees.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said Medicaid enrollment in Florida increased through another 224,375 people, or nearly 2 percent, in June. Approximately 4.2 million more people are now on record, with 4.36 million forecasts through the end of the year.
Federal Medicare and Medicaid service centers increased federal health care by 6.2% in March, expanding federal Medicaid bills to $1.6 billion.
However, this accumulation expires on December 31. Without an extension, the government could see a deficit of $553.7 million through July 1, 2021, economists said.