Welcome to

As state lawmakers prepared to cut the state budget, a tax watchdog is asking lawmakers to take a different approach to fill the state’s 2.3 billion dollar budget deficit.

Florida TaxWatch released 44 steps lawmakers could take to balance the budget. The recommendations include postponing construction on three new prisons, asking the federal government to pay the state all the money it’s owed and renegotiating some state contracts. TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said the state could also do a better job of collecting taxes.

“Make sure people pay their fair share, their legal share first of all, before we ask anybody to pay a higher tax share,” said Calabro.

The group says following all 44 of the recommendations would boost state revenues by 2.5 billion dollars.