"State revenues are more than $600 million ahead of projections following a second straight month of strong collections," said Chiang. "Importantly, because higher-than-expected payroll withholdings and estimated payments are driving the good news, it signals that Californians are beginning to earn more, work more, and the Great Recession is becoming a faint image in the rear view mirror. The recipe for sustaining this momentum is to remain disciplined in our spending, pay-down debt, and aggressively hold taxpayer-funded programs accountable for results.”
Personal income taxes for the month came in $438.9 million above (11.8 percent) estimates, much of that from tax amounts withheld on individuals' paychecks. Sales tax receipts were up $53.2 million (7.4 percent). Only corporate taxes missed their monthly estimate, coming in $16 million below (8.9 percent) projections.
Year-to-date disbursements were $103.1 million below estimates, but this variance will easily be offset in November by more than $1 billion of planned payments to education agencies. Those payments were originally expected to go out before October 31.
The State ended the month with a General Fund cash deficit of $18.3 billion, which was covered with both internal and external borrowing. That figure is down from last year, when the State faced a cash deficit of $24.7 billion at the end of October 2012.
For more details on today's report, read the financial statement and summary analysis.