TALLAHASSEE -- Like millions of people across the state, Florida's government will be living hand to mouth for the next year.

Nearly every dollar in revenue will be spent -- including $5.3 billion expected from the federal government. Some trust funds built up during years of plenty will be drained. And, unlike many of its citizens, the state can't take a second job -- so it will be providing fewer services but taxing more.

Get used to it, economists and legislators say. Lawmakers will likely be back budget-cutting and tax-raising again.

The reason: Florida has a broken ''Ponzi scheme of financing government'' that relies on population growth to pay for government, said economist Sean Snaith. And with little or no population growth, the state's finances won't improve.

''Florida's tax structure is flawed fundamentally,'' said Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute of Economic Competitiveness, which issued a recent report on the state's troubled condition.

Snaith said that a rebound in the economy will not be enough to replace billions of dollars in federal stimulus money that will dry up in 2011. But state needs and wants will grow.

That leaves Florida lawmakers with two choices, he said: ``Cut spending and raise taxes.''

Lawmakers have tried to stave off that possibility. The $66.5 billion budget they passed Friday has about a $1.7 billion cushion to pay for future shortfalls.

But even legislators who pushed hardest for that reserve acknowledge they might be back next year to set aside a cushion again for what they call the stimulus ``flameout.''

''We saved what we could, but if we wind up with another $6 billion hole, there's nothing we can do to avoid more cuts and revenues,'' said Sen. J.D. Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican and Senate budget chief. He said lawmakers did all they could in one of the most challenging budget years in state history.

''This Legislature, politically, can't set aside $6 billion in savings when we have all these needs in this state,'' Alexander said.

Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Orlando, pushed for deeper budget cuts as well as a cigarette-tax increase and a gambling agreement to build a cash cushion into the budget. He said he'll ''make it a priority this year and next to look at'' increasing state revenues and decreasing spending.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Florida's economy is in a turbulent storm of trouble that will make it challenging to resume a growth-based economy, said the UCF report. Among the troubles: The prolonged recession is expected to reduce Florida tourism, the stock market's declines are expected to delay retirees' plans to relocate to Florida, and builders are halting construction in the face of huge inventories and little growth.

Other recent economic reports underscore the UCF conclusions:

• Population growth will slow to a trickle as only 37,000 newcomers move to Florida by 2010 -- a 60-year low -- according to projections by the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

• The number of jobs in Florida will shrink by another 4 percent in 2009 and increase less than 1 percent in 2010, state economists say.

• Tax collections will increase only $1 billion next year and another $2 billion in 2011, the economists say. Tax collections for the general revenue portion of the budget dropped $5.5 billion in the past two years.

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