Good news from controller

March tax money coming into the state coffers beat budget estimates by $356 million. Also, expenditures were lower than expected. Year-to-date revenues are ahead of budget estimates by $2.3 billion. These are encouraging numbers, but the deficit remains huge - and given the levels of high unemployment, tax revenues are likely to sag well into next year. From state Controller John Chiang:

Personal income taxes and corporate taxes in particular are still noticeably below last year. Up to this point in the year, these two revenue sources have reduced by more than half the net impact of the strong sales tax numbers on the General Fund. Additionally, estimated tax payments traditionally paid by small business owners and the self-employed are down by more than 23% compared to last year. This shows that although the worst is likely behind us, it will be a long slog coming out the other end of this recession.