LOS ANGELES — California continued to beat revenue expectations, exceeding projections by $844.6 million for the first half of the fiscal year that began in July, according to the State Controller's monthly
Just as Gov. Jerry Brown did in delivering his budget last week, Yee sounded a cautionary note, warning that she will be "closely monitoring revenues to detect signals of a downturn."
While Yee said in a statement she is encouraged by the state's continued fiscal strength, "we need to be aware that the good times will not last forever."
Higher-than-expected personal income tax collections helped boost revenues to $51.1 billion at the fiscal year's halfway mark, 1.8% higher than last June's revenue projections, more than offsetting corporation tax and sales and use tax collections that came in slightly lower than expectations, according to the controller's office.
Personal income taxes for the first half of the fiscal year beat estimates by $1.3 billion, but the corporation tax fell short by $120.6 million and the sales and use tax came in $262.5 million lower than expected.
Revenues also surpassed expectations for December coming in $381.7 million, or nearly 3% higher than expected, according to the cash report.
Total revenues for December were $14.1 billion with personal income tax of $9.5 billion, $388.3 million higher than expected. Corporation tax revenues of $1.7 billion beat projections by $25.8 million. Retail sales and use tax revenues came in at $2.4 billion, which was $35.8 million less than anticipated.
The state ended the month of December with $11.1 billion in outstanding loans—$1.4 billion, or 11.4%, less than expected. For the first year in 15 years, the state is covering month-to-month shortfalls exclusively through internal borrowing from special funds rather than external loans, such as revenue anticipation notes.
