You’d think that these days, with revenue falling, expenses rising and budgetary crisis looming on the horizon, that the states would at least be trying to keep track of the assets they DO have with an iron fist, so as to maximize their revenue-generating capability.

Not Florida, of course. Florida has misplaced not computers or a vehicle pool or the crop report (though who knows, it may have misplaced all that stuff too) but 18,000 actual BUILDINGS:

Taxpayers footed the bill for a tiny house in Oakland, but state lawmakers don’t know when or even why they bought it. They don’t even know it exists. It’s one of nearly 18,000 buildings state managers can’t find.
“It’s amazing to discover such a lack of information and knowledge about what they own,” commercial realtor Don Seligman said.
State managers can’t find much of what they bought, because they never made a master list. They’ve been trying to make one for months, but don’t know how.

They don’t know how to make a master list? Have they not heard of Microsoft Word? Excel? Maybe a whole ton of those 3-ring binders? And come on, you can give Captain Obvious an address and a Garmin, pay him a fraction of that and get him to take a picture in front of it where he points and says “HOUSE”.

When you consider the revenue lost by not attempting to rent these properties, and the disrepair they’re probably falling into, this move looks even stupider:

The values add up. Take the little house in Oakland, add the Lynx headquarters in Orlando, the massive state building a few blocks away, a non-descript building on South Street and the former Expressway Authority headquarters and state properties in Orange County alone are worth more than $440 million.
With Florida facing a nearly $3 billion budget hole, State Senator JD Alexander (R – Sebring) says there’s no telling how much empty space could be leased out or sold off.
“Those are dollars that we can’t spend on education, health care or the other critical needs of our state,” Alexander said. “They’re leaving money on the table.”

Granted, real estate vacancies in Florida are laughable and one mall in Orlando had, I think at last count, 40 of its 130-some-odd storefronts vacant, but still, every little bit helps and whatnot. And I sincerely hope a) other agencies in Florida, e.g., the Department of Children and Families, have better inventory control and b) other states aren’t this fail.