LOS ANGELES — California revenues for January beat projections in the governor's proposed 2017-18 budget by $747 million, but the state is $9 million off the $68.5 billion forecast for the fiscal year to date, according to the
December cash receipts were $756 million below forecast, according to the DOF.
The State Controller's Office, which tracks figures separately, reported on Feb. 10 that the state beat the forecast by $844.4 million for the month, but was down $115.5 million year-to-date.
The difference between the two reports released several days apart "can result in swings of a couple hundred million," said H.D. Palmer, a DOF spokesman.
What likely happened in January is there were refunds reported in the agency numbers that were not reported in the controller's number, Palmer said. Refunds were $301 million above the forecasted $3.02 billion year-to-date.
"It is why we caution people not to just look at one month in isolation," he said. "They do reconcile at the end."
Two of the largest sources of revenues – personal income taxes and sales and use taxes — came in below the year-to-date forecast from the finance department. PIT was $209 million below the forecast and sales and use revenue taxes were $60 million below forecast.
Corporation tax revenues were $175 million above the forecast.
California's unemployment rate fell by 0.1% to 5.2% in December compared to the U.S., which grew by 0.1% to 4.8%, the report said. California added 3,700 nonfarm jobs in December, well below the average monthly gain of 27,700 jobs in 2016.
Residential permits in California increased 30.4% in December over the prior month with 121,400 permits, including single-family and multi-family construction. Sales of existing single-family homes was down by 7% in December from the pace in November. The median home price for the year climbed 5.4% to reach $502,000.
