California Budget Is Already in the Red 10 Weeks After Passage

User Forum Topic
Submitted by Arraya on October 10, 2009 - 11:14am

Boy, this was hard to see coming. An overly optimistic forecast.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2...
Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will know within a month whether a $1.1 billion drop in revenue collections is part of a growing budget shortfall or an isolated event, his budget spokesman said.

Revenue in the three months ended Sept. 30 was 5.3 percent less than assumed in the $85 billion annual budget, state controller John Chiang reported yesterday. Income tax receipts led the gap, as unemployment reached 12.2 percent in August.

‹ Yuri Bezmenov - 20th century Nostradamus Man-cession ›
A budget built on projected
Submitted by Arraya on October 10, 2009 - 2:13pm.

A budget built on projected optional spending by people who have declining to non existent incomes ? What could possibly go wrong?

The main driver of our
Submitted by EconProf on October 10, 2009 - 3:56pm.

The main driver of our deficit now is our weak state economy combined with our highly progressive income tax. Just under 50% of state income tax revenues come from the top 1% of taxpayers. Those people, who also do a lot of the business start-ups and expansions, are being clobbered by soak-the-rich politicians and are merely responding to incentives.