TALLAHASSEE -- With taxes or fees likely to rise and some state services facing the ax, this is a year lawmakers will have little to brag about.

That's especially true for Republicans, who have controlled the state's power structure for more than a decade.

Now their core beliefs about government spending and their relationship with their governor, Charlie Crist, are being challenged as never before.

There are a few minor bright spots as lawmakers start their annual two-month session Tuesday: School property taxes could be cut. School spending could increase. So could unemployment benefits and healthcare for the needy.

But that's only if legislators abide by Crist's call to spend about $7.9 billion in federal stimulus money this budget year and next, with the balance of the money, $4.3 billion, exhausted by 2011.

Crist portrays the federal aid as a panacea that would allow the state to avoid deep budget cuts, afford some property-tax cuts and increase spending.

''It's a whole new world,'' Crist said. ``We're in an economic crisis. We need this money to get us to a bridge to a better future. And I believe that by the time those three years pass, we will be on the rebound. We will be doing better.''

A CONTRARY VIEW

But three years of record job loss, plummeting tax collections and a flat-lined housing market mean that not all legislators share Crist's optimism about the economy or the stimulus package.

''The governor has a very positive outlook, and I mean that with all due respect,'' said Republican Senate President Jeff Atwater. ``We don't have a crystal ball. We don't know how deep this [bad economy] is going to go. We don't know how long this is going to last.''

The prediction that the economy will be stronger by the time the federal money runs out is ''a pretty bold guess,'' Atwater said.

The bad times plus Crist's high-profile stance on the stimulus package are challenging the Reagan-era tenet that ''government is the problem.'' Now, government and government spending are being pushed as the solution.

The stimulus money leaves Republicans in a difficult position. If they spend the money, they would look as if they're siding with and acting like Democrats. If they refuse the cash, they would have to make deep budget cuts that would be tough to explain to constituents.

Adding to the tension: Lawmakers will likely forego tens of millions in home-town projects that they are accustomed to bringing back to their districts. Also, the House was thrown into disarray over Rep. Ray Sansom's connections to a home-town college to which he disproportionately steered money, only to win an unadvertised job there. He faces a criminal investigation and his quit both the college job and his post as House speaker.

Lawmakers will take the federal money, if Crist has anything to do with it. He has publicly advocated for the stimulus money in appearances around the state, with President Barack Obama and on national television. Crist is entertaining a run for the U.S. Senate.

Moderates in the state Senate say they have little choice but to take the stimulus cash. They face an estimated deficit of $5.5 billion. Without stimulus money flowing to education, they might have to raise the statewide school property-tax rate because property values are bottoming out. If they do take the money, property-tax payers could avoid the rate hike for an estimated savings of $356 million to $1 billion statewide.

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