Florida may soon be better known for denying financial reality and deferring responsibility than promoting sunshine. The Florida Legislature is now synonymous with “parallel universe.”
Its legislators, led by the “no tax”-mantra GOP, tune out economists as easily as advocates for higher education, social services or wetlands protection. Reasonable revenue reform? Might as well be lobbying for an atheists’ license plate.
Most recently, however, Florida lawmakers had to turn a deaf ear in another direction – toward those who can’t be labeled politically partisan or priority skewed. Try Moody’s Investors Service.
Moody’s has looked askance at Florida because it found its financial stewardship foundering oxymoronically. It saw a state that was fixated on one-time income paying too big a portion of recurring expenses. It saw a state that lacked a plan for restoring reserves spent down to avoid an unconstitutional deficit. It saw a state that seemed to care more about slogans than solutions.
And then it did what bond-rating agencies do in such cases. It put Florida’s top-level Aa1 bond rating on a watchlist for a possible downgrade. One that could happen within 90 days.
The likely result, of course, would be Florida paying higher interest rates to borrow money. Which would mean many more millions of dollars the state doesn’t have. The Sunshine State’s perfect storm continues.