http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30855847/from/ET/?ref=patrick.net
A ‘cataclysmic economic decline’
In good times, California rakes in tax revenue swollen with payments from newly minted millionaires. In bad times, it suffers a proportional impact.
After the recession started in December 2007, the state lost about $20 billion in revenue in 2008 — nearly a fifth of its overall general fund — State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said.
Things have only gotten worse this year. From January through March, California collected 16 percent less in state income, corporate and sales taxes than it had in the same period last year. Then, in April alone, personal income tax receipts were $1 billion below projections, while corporate taxes came up $831 million short, the state comptroller’s office reported.
“With this cataclysmic economic decline, we just have a combination that’s unimaginably bad,” said Bruce E. Cain, director of the University of California’s political research center in Washington, D.C.
