State’s Cash Flow Up

Sacramento, CA – December brought a surplus gift to the State coffers.  State Controller Betty Yee has released the monthly report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements for this past December.  Revenues for the month totaled $13.1 billion, surpassing budget estimates by $1.9 billion, or 17.2 percent.

“Exceeding expectations when it comes to having cash to pay the state’s bills is good news,” said Controller Yee.  “Our strong cash position will be a welcome boom to schools and other local agencies that depend on timely state disbursements.”

The top three revenue sources in the state, sales, income and corporate tax, all exceeded the monthly estimates, with the latter 38.1% above the state’s projection.  There was also a boost for next month, as near $1.1 billion in income and corporate taxes received on the last day of December, will be included in the January cash report.

The first six months of the fiscal year saw revenues of $47.4 billion, which were $3.0 billion ahead of budget estimates.

Money going out of the coffers in December exceeded budget estimates by $516.7 million.  However, year-to-date disbursements are $822.9 million less than initially projected.

The General Fund cash for last month ended with a deficit of $16.0 billion, which was covered by $13.2 billion of internal borrowing and $2.8 billion of external borrowing.  However, that amount was down from last year, when the State had a cash deficit of $18.3 billion in December 2013.