The amounts that state and local governments in Florida and other states spend on public services for undocumented immigrants exceed what those immigrants pay in state and local taxes, says a new study done for Congress.

The same report says there is little that state and local governments can do to avoid or minimize these costs, because their authority to do so is significantly limited by federal rules and court decisions.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office report does not conclude how much more, exactly, is spent in Florida or nationally on public services for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants than is taken in by their tax dollars.

But it said these costs are concentrated in programs that make up a large percentage of total state spending—specifically, those associated with education, health care, and law enforcement. By most estimates, the report notes, spending for unauthorized immigrants accounted for less than 5 percent of total state and local spending for those services.

The study was done at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

In compiling its findings, the Congressional Budget Office said it had reviewed 29 reports over 15 years that sought to assess the economic impacts of undocumented immigrants on local budgets.

One study by the Pew Hispanic Center in 2006 estimated that between 55 percent and 60 percent of all unauthorized immigrants lived in six states: Arizona, California, Florida, New York, Texas, and Illinois. Comparing those estimates to census data, unauthorized immigrants range from about 3 percent of the total state population in Illinois, to 5 percent in Florida, and 8 percent in California.

But this is changing; the report says these costs on local and state governments are no longer limited to the handful of states like Florida, Texas, California and New York that have been traditional first destinations for new immigrant populations.

See the report here.

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