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What has been a succession of months of strong tax collections for Florida came to a halt in October. And the numbers would have been even lower than estimates except for the fact economists took the Federal Government shutdown into consideration.

The taxes from Florida Real estate transactions dropped by just over five percent last month. State Corporate tax collections were off 12 percent in October. The period covers the Federal Government shut down.

Sales tax collections in October remained virtually flat. Economists says they are still crunching the final numbers. “Well, we been seeing some strong increases coming into October. October overall all, kind of came in at the forecast or just a hair below, so maybe a little bit of slowing.” says Amy Baker, Economist.

Former Congressman, now Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Adam Putnam has long been critical of Washington’s dysfunction. The numbers back him up.”I do think that you’re seeing an impact on consumer confidence, hiring decisions, business decisions,” says Adam Putnam, Agriculture Commissioner.

The estimates for tax collections could have been even worse had economists not factored in the looming Federal Shutdown when they issued the estimates in August.

Revenue estimators say they’ll continue to have a cautious outlook until congress fixes the budget problem once and for all. “We have no idea what they are going to do in January and February, so we’re still being cautious,” says Baker.

If there is one bright spot, overall tax collections for Florida are still 73 million above original estimates, signaling an economy improving faster than even state economists predicted.