A citizens' guide to the sources of state funds, where tax money goes, and how the budget process works

The state budget affects Florida's 18 million people every day, even though most don't often think about it.

By understanding the budget and tax policy that provides the revenue for the budget, Floridians can participate in the allocation of resources to their top priorities and make a difference in the kind of state we're building and what it will be in the future.

The Primer makes complicated fiscal information understandable to the average citizen.  We hope it will help citizens become more engaged in the policy making process.

> Read the Primer.

Creating more tax breaks for businesses in the hopes that they will create jobs is a questionable strategy, despite claims from political candidates. 

Additional tax breaks will not necessarily cause businesses to create more jobs.  Instead, more tax breaks may simply increase profits.

Is it prudent to reduce state revenues with additional tax breaks at a time when the state is looking at a $6 billion shortfall for next year's budget and tens of thousands of people who need state services languish on wait lists because there is insufficient funding?

> Read the report.

The legislature passed a Fiscal Year 2011 budget of $70.4 billion that is insufficient to meet critical and high priority programs needed by Florida's struggling families.

The legislature failed to provide new recurring revenues and even reduced current revenues by providing tax breaks under the guise of "economic development."

The legislature will have another opportunity in 2011 to create a budget including new revenues that will put Florida on track for long-term economic growth and advance the well-being of Floridians.

> Read the report.

Devoting state money to tax breaks in the hopes that they will create jobs diverts funds from a more proven path for job creation and economic development:
investment in the state's education system.

An alternative economic development strategy would close business tax loopholes and repeal unwarranted tax subsidies and exemptions to provide the revenue necessary for increased investment in public education.

A job-creating engine already exists—the State University System (SUS).

> Read the report.