April Still the Cruelest Month

California’s April income tax receipts were disappointing.

The controller’s office, which posted preliminary tracking figures throughout April  when tax returns are due, reported $7.15 billion in income tax collections.

In his most recent budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had projected $10.2 billion in income tax receipts.

That $3 billion shortfall more than wipes out $2.3 billion in better-than-estimated revenues the controller’s office had reported during the previous months.

That means the state’s budget shortfall is pretty much exactly what it was expected to be in January, when the governor said the state had a $6.6 billion shortfall for the current fiscal year, on about $88 billion in projected general fund revenue.

The structural budget gap for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1, was projected at more than $12 billion.

The governor is scheduled to release a revised budget proposal later this month.

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