TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist is heading to Key West Tuesday afternoon to inspect what little physical damage there is from Tropical Storm Fay and to spread the word: The Florida Keys are open for business again, but the entire state isn't yet in the clear.

Crist -- who plans to visit harder-hit Collier County later in the day -- said the upward of 25,000 evacuated tourists can flow back into the Keys again. He said some state financial help, in the form of more advertising money, could be in the offing.

But before the state cuts any check, Crist is using the power of his personality to attract a little free advertising time with TV news crews.

''I'm going to continue to tell people what a beautiful place it is. The Florida Keys are a real treasure. They're unique, special,'' Crist said. ``Communicating that to people, whenever I have a chance, I'm more than happy to do it. I love going there.''

Crist recently announced an economic-stimulus plan to speed up state construction projects and advertise Florida's charms in national TV markets. He said it's ''certainly possible'' the Keys could get a bigger share of that ad money. ''Whatever we can do to help the economy of the entire state, and certainly a place as special as the Florida Keys, that's what we're supposed to do,'' Crist said.

All those decisions, though, will be made long after Crist returns to Tallahassee. And there's not much money to go around.

Crist first has to decide how to plug an estimated budget hole of nearly $1.5 billion that state economists forecast Friday.

Crist said he planned to transfer about $600 million from reserve accounts to temporarily plug the hole and see what happens in the coming months. He also said he probably will continue asking state agencies to hold back 4 percent of their budgets.

Crist said he'd prefer to focus on Fay for now, because the storm is not weakening and it could spin off more tornadoes and cause more floods throughout the peninsula. He and his state emergency management director, Craig Fugate, bristled at the criticism the state has hyped the dangers of the storm.

''I would continue to emphasize this is a serious storm,'' Crist said. ``This is a storm that I think at present killed 10 people, not in Florida. So it doesn't get much more serious than that.''

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