State Controller John Chiang announced on Thursday that, for the month of May, state General Fund revenues are $592.2 million (9.8%) higher than the budget anticipated. Most of that amount was from personal income taxes, but percentage-wise corporate income taxes were the highest above budget expectations. May revenues were $518 million higher than the Governor assumed in this year’s January budget proposal.
Year-to-date through May:
Revenues: $75.25 billion, 0.8% ($592 million) above budget estimate.
Disbursements: $83.84 billion, 1.4% ($1.16 billion) below budget estimate.
Unused borrowable resources: $7.75 billion, 57.3% ($2.82 billion) above estimate.
Year-to-date: personal income is up 1.0%, corporation tax is up 1.1%, and sales and use is up 0.3% over budget estimates. Total revenues are $2.6 billion above this time last year.
The Controller also notes that new auto registrations are 2.5% below this time last fiscal year, and home sales are down about 1.3%. However, the median home price is up about 15% and foreclosures initiated are down more than 40%.
Interesting note:
For the month of May, the cigarette tax, which is levied per cigarette and not as a percentage of the sales price, is far above the same month last year. This could be due to happenstance, or shipping or payment schedules tobacco companies use, but it might also be due to the recession’s stressful effects on some peoples’ lives.
You can find the numbers here and the narrative here.
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