Despite the reports of gloom and doom from the mainstream media, sales tax receipts in California actually were higher in December 2008 than in December 2007. According to figures from Controller John Chiang, state sales tax revenue in December 2008 totaled $2.093 billion, compared with $2.060 billion in December 2007.
While the December collections were higher than in the same month the prior year, December sales tax revenue did not increase as much as the state's crackerjack revenue estimators predicted last May. They said December sales tax revenue would be $282 million higher than in 2007 (a forecast of a 13.7 percent increase for that month), according to the controller's data.
It should be noted that November 2008 sales tax receipts were approximately $630 million below 2007 amounts, so there was some contraction of sales activity in the fall.
For the first six months of this fiscal year (July through December), total general fund revenues were $40.16 billion, which is below 2007 actual revenue of $42.04 billion for the same period (down 4.5 percent). Since estimators predicted an increase in revenue this year, the July-to-December receipts are $2.46 billion (5.7 percent) below those estimates made in May.
Cal-TaxReports, January 26, 2009
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