Why tax money didn't come in

The state controller's office is still trying to figure out how April tax receipts were $3.6-billion below expectations ($3.1 billion of which came from lower-than-expected personal income taxes). One possibility for at least some of the shortfall is that small business owners hadn't increased their estimated tax payments over last year because they weren't seeing much of an uptick. There are a few other explanations in the controller's tax report, but nothing really addresses the scope of the underestimate. Year-to-date revenues are now behind estimates by $1.3 billion. There must be a lot of tap dancing in Sacramento because this really messes up efforts to close next year's gaping budget deficit.