Court revenue forecast is a cause for concern: it appears the courts will need another loan to make it through the fiscal year.

Revenues for Florida's courts will be lower than initially projected for the 2011-12 fiscal year, but how much lower was a point of contention at the Article V Revenue Estimating Conference September 12. The eventual consensus, however, showed that the courts will need another loan of state funds in the current fiscal year.

The courts began the year with a $54 million loan for the first three months because of the dramatic slowing in foreclosure filings. (The budget anticipates the courts will pay that loan back by the end of the fiscal year.)

Under the new estimates, the courts foresee a shortfall of around $108 million, which includes paying back the initial $54 million loan.

Officials from the Governor's Office, the Economic and Demographic Research Office of the Legislature, legislative budget staffers, and the Office of the State Courts Administrator shared their economic projections and reached a consensus of what is likely to happen for the remainder of the year.

On most items, various officials were fairly close together on their projections. But on foreclosures--the largest source of funding for the courts--they were far apart.

Skip Burnside, of EDR, said his office modeled three different scenarios based on a high, medium, and low number of filings, then blended those for a prediction of around 265,000 filings for the year--a figure that officials from the Governor's Office generally agreed with, although they used a different methodology. Holger Ciupalo of the Governor's Office noted that an increasing number of delinquent properties appeared to be going through short sales rather than through foreclosure.

Kris Slayden, of OSCA, said court officials were being conservative in their projections after last year's dramatic reduction in mortgage filings following questions about the procedures used by banks in preparing foreclosure paperwork and the accuracy of the information filed in those cases. She said that led to a prediction of 155,000 filings.

Since filing fees for foreclosures range between $380 and $1,900, depending on the value of the property, that difference had major fiscal implications.

"The foreclosure filings have been unprecedentedly volatile," Slayden said.

She said the courts acknowledge that there is a backlog of cases waiting to be filed in the wake of continuing defaults by owners and the banks seeking to clear up robosigning and other paperwork problems that plagued foreclosures beginning last year. Also, most...