TALLAHASSEE -- Florida just lost $147.1 million in tax collections.

And that's good news in a state where tax-collection estimates had dipped by about $1.4 billion last November.

Not only does the estimate issued Tuesday by state economists show that their forecasts are becoming more accurate -- it suggests that Florida's economy is no longer unstable.

``We went from our housing shock through a national recession through the credit crisis through the global recession,'' said the Legislature's chief economist, Amy Baker.

``What you've seen is for the first time we've had a period of time that was stable without those shocks coming in and hitting us,'' she said.

Still, the economists who regularly meet to estimate state revenues couldn't ignore the depth of the recession, rampant job losses, bottoming-out home prices and declining consumer confidence. So they shaved $147.1 million from a previous estimate for this budget year, which began July 1. General-revenue tax collections this year will be $332.4 million less this budget year than last. Tax collections haven't been this low since the budget year that began July 1, 2003.

Despite the lost tax revenue, the portion of the state budget that funds general government services such as schools and healthcare won't be in deficit for the first time in years.

That's because legislators can take the $147.1 million out of reserves. They built up about $1.6 billion in savings during the last lawmaking session by raising fees and taxes and plowing billions in federal stimulus money into the budget. Also, for the past few months, state tax collections came in slightly higher than expected, building up more of a cushion in the budget.

When asked about the recent revenue collections, Gov. Charlie Crist focused on the short-term gains over the past few months.

``To have more revenue coming in than the estimators anticipated is better for Florida,'' Crist said.

Crist noted that the gains are ``small, and so I would caution people to [not] put too much meaning into it at this time, but it's certainly better than being the other way.''

Such a note of caution is striking from Crist who, for instance, cheered when the unemployment rate in Florida dipped two-tenths of a percent to 9.6 between March and April. Now the unemployment rate is 10.6 percent.

Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com

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