controller

The cash statement from the California state controller for the first seven months of fiscal year 2013-14 is out.  Revenues are up about 1% from last year at this time.  That gain is not very good.  However, it may be largely due to an aberration last fiscal year when there was a surge of personal income tax revenue in January 2013.  The surge seemed to have something to do with antics back then in Washington over fiscal cliffs, etc., which might have resulted in some tax changes (but didn’t).  The current DC crisis de jour is the debt ceiling, but…

The state controller has issued a cash report that more revenue to the tune of about $2.5 billion arrived in the first six months of 2013-14 than was projected in the budget last June.  Blog readers will recall that the governor insisted on conservative projections of revenue. Note that the really big revenues will arrive around (income) tax time in April.  If you looked at the reserve in the general fund at the moment, as seen by the controller, it is negative $18.3 billion, covered by internal and external borrowing.  As many have noted, California is heavily dependent on the…

The state controller has issued his cash statement for the first 5 months of the fiscal year (July-November).  Revenues for the general fund are about what was projected in the state budget passed last June.  Personal income tax receipts are running ahead of forecast (which probably means the rich are getting richer).  Sales tax receipts are a bit behind (not so good retail performance).  But really there is no news. Receipts are highly seasonal due to dates when estimated taxes are due.  At the moment, the reserve in the general fund is negative to the tune of almost $20 billion…

The state controller’s statement for July, the first month of the 2013-14 fiscal year, reports that revenues were roughly $300 million below estimates in the state budget.  Most of that gap was due to personal income tax net receipts.  As blog readers will know, there is a lot of volatility and uncertainty involved in income tax receipts.  A windfall came in around New Years which may have had to do with people taking capital gains or otherwise advancing income into the prior tax year trying to anticipate “fiscal cliff” developments.  So it may be that there will be less income…

The state controller has just released his data on cash receipts for 2012-13 through May.  As it turns out, the month of May brought in more cash than forecast in the governor’s May revise, just under $800 million more.  This outcome will add fuel to the conflict between the governor and the legislature as to how much revenue to project for 2013-14.  The governor has argued that much of the extra money that has come in this year is a one-time capital gains result that cannot be assumed to continue. As our previous post noted, the legislature is due to…

We have noted that over $4 billion beyond the governor’s budget estimates for the current fiscal year began showing up in the state treasury at around the time of the congressional fiscal cliff, etc., decision.  It appeared to come from upped withholding of state income taxes, perhaps from individuals taking capital gains at the end of 2012 to avoid possible tax hikes thereafter.  No one seems to know for sure but once the money arrived, it stayed, i.e., it didn’t seem to be some fluke of timing that subsequently reversed.  The latest state controller’s cash statement continues to show no…