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Summary Analysis of General Fund Cash Receipts (2007 - 2014)
May 2014 Cash Report Summary Analysis
More on California Fiscal Policy: Tracking April
More on California Fiscal Policy: Tracking April
Published May 8, 2014
For the sixth year in a row, State Controller John Chiang posted daily tax numbers showing a play-by-play accounting of revenue collections in the all-important month of April. The latest version, hosted at scotaxtracker.blogspot.com, features a number of improvements from last year, including multiple daily updates along with analysis.
Why are the timely updates so important to the Controller? For three basic reasons:
- Watching taxpayer behavior helps officials create estimates that better project revenue totals and timing.
- The Controller is responsible for constantly managing the State's cash flow.
- Transparency in State government is always a moving target, with the constant potential for improvement and to learn from past experience. This year's site received more than 6,700 page views, approximately 40% more than last year. One feature that generated positive feedback was direct access to the raw numbers.
One trend found by tracking April 2014 receipts was the strong showing of income tax paid through paycheck withholdings, which could indicate that Californians are earning more than expected this calendar year. Nearly a third of all April receipts were from withholdings, which no doubt helped push the April income tax total $300 million past projections.