The State Controller's Office has a web site up at which you can track the personal income tax revenue we taxpayers have been sending in.
According to the site, Governor Jerry Brown's "latest budget estimate projected personal income tax receipts would total $6.841 billion in April." For those with a rooting interest -- like everyone in the state -- in seeing California meet or exceed that total, you can use the site like a telethon tote board to track the money coming in.
On Monday, KQED's John Myers wrote an analysis on his Capital Notes blog of how the state was doing to date. Then, the outlook wasn't so good:
Through Friday, state data shows only about 31% of the tax revenues projected -- and counted on -- for April had come in, meaning the month needs to finish big to avoid adding to California's fiscal pressures...
it's been a relatively slow month for dollars to arrive. In the first 15 days of April, the state took in just under $2.15 billion; in the same time period in 2010, a little more had been collected -- about $2.17 billion.
Overall, California's revenues in the 2010-2011 budget year have been stronger than the year before. At the end of March, the state was $4.62 billion ahead of the end of March 2010. But that advantage has been shrinking slightly over the last two weeks, even after the single biggest day of the year -- this past Friday, when more than $522 million in state tax revenues came in.
April is a crucial month; Controller Chiang's office reports that last year, the traditional tax month accounted for some 16% of all state income revenues for the entire year. Should things fall short of projections this time around, it's going to make the work of Governor Jerry Brown and legislators that much harder... and the debate that much more heated.
However, Myers added this update yesterday:
Wednesday 10:49 a.m. update: The last two days since this posting was written have been huge for income tax receipts -- almost $1.9 billion in just 48 hours, thus putting the state on a path to possibly exceeding expectations. No doubt that would change the political debate over revenues come May.
So keep those hard-earned dollars coming in, ladies and gents...