State Controller John Chiang today released his monthly report
covering California's cash balance, receipts and disbursements in
December 2012. After accounting for timing issues related to sales tax
deposits, December's totals were $103.4 million above (1.1 percent)
estimates found in the 2012-13 state budget.
"While December's figures were distorted by timing issues, the
month's revenues closely match budget projections and offer further
evidence that California's economy is slowly mending," said Chiang.
December's sales tax receipts were affected by a large timing issue
at the end of the calendar year. While $1 billion of sales tax was
deposited into the Board of Equalization's bank account on December 31,
those dollars were not transferred to the General Fund for another two
days. Because the Controller's monthly cash report shows General Fund
balances reported by close of business on December 31, the $1 billion of
late-deposited December sales tax dollars will instead appear in
January's report. Without accounting for this timing issue, total
revenues fell $896.6 million below (-9.6 percent) monthly estimates.
Personal income taxes in the month of December came in $767.6 million
above (13.4 percent) monthly estimates contained in the 2012-13 state
budget. Corporate taxes came in $445.9 million below (-31.2 percent)
those monthly estimates.
The State ended the last fiscal year with a cash deficit of $9.6
billion. As of December 31, that cash deficit totaled $24.2 billion and
was covered with $14.2 billion of internal borrowing (temporary loans
from special funds), and $10 billion of external borrowing.
For more details on today's report, read December 2012's financial statement and summary analysis.
