Personal bankruptcies, high unemployment and a ravaged real estate
market have pushed at least 500,000 people out of Florida, and the
population is actually expected to shrink. Demographers expect to lose
60,000 residents, the first time that’s happened since World War II. A
study by the Pew Center on the States identified Florida as one of the
states at risk of fiscal calamity and cited its reliance on population
growth as contributing to its economic woes. William Frey, a
demographer with The Brookings Institution in Washington, said
Florida’s growth moving forward will likely be slower than in the past.
He said the slowdown could give leaders — and residents — the
opportunity to rethink the state’s economic diversity and tax
structure, preserve more of its environment, change its patterns of
development, improve its schools and enhance the quality of life. [Orlando Sentinel]
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A report by the Pew Center on the States puts Florida and at least nine other states on the brink of economic disaster. The Sunshine State joins California, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin as the states most likely to have steep tax increases, government layoffs and deep service cuts. State Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who chairs both of the Florida House’s two appropriations councils, said Florida continues to face the same challenges as last year, including high unemployment, weakness in key industries such as real estate and construction and a very austere budgetary environment. [Sun-Sentinel]